
Book H^S 



JO 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



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•>9 




THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA. Ltd. 

TORONTO 




Milk in Politics — The Acute Stage of the Problem, as the car- 
toonist sees it. Under these circumstances the legislator is likely to 
suspend his dilemma by doing nothing at all. 



Boston Herald, May 17, 1912. 



THE 
MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



IN SANITATION, ECONOMICS, AND 
AGRICULTURE 



J.f SCOTT MacNUTT 

LECTURER ON PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE IN THE 

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; 

AUTHOR OF "A MANUAL FOR HEALTH 

OFFICERS " 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1917 

All rights reserved 




,\A^^ 



Copyright, 1917 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1917. 



M 22 1917 

©Cl.&467534 



PREFACE 

Notwithstanding the fact that the milk problem is 
constantly growing more acute in many parts of the 
United States, no book has thus far appeared treating, 
in a brief space, its main aspects and stressing the 
practical and economic as well as the sanitary factors 
involved. The present volume is designed to fill this 
obvious need by providing a convenient survey of a 
perplexing subject, — not merely for health officials and 
milk inspectors, but also for dairymen and city milk 
dealers, agricultural authorities, legislators charged with 
the framing of milk laws, inquiring consumers and 
members of organizations engaged in efforts to secure 
better milk supplies, physicians, and all others who are 
interested in the understanding and solution of the milk 
problem. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The author desires to thank collectively the many 
correspondents who have assisted him in the collec- 
tion of material, and particularly Mr. Franz Schneider, 
Jr., Sanitarian in the Department of Surveys and 
Exhibits of the Russell Sage Foundation, for his valu- 
able criticism of the manuscript. 



Vll 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 
I. Why There Is a Milk Problem 1 

Nature and Importance of the Problem. Milk: A Cheap 
and Universal Food. Milk: A Sanitary Danger. The "In- 
visible Cloak" of Contamination: Dirt; Bacteria. Bad Milk 
and Infant Mortality. Milk as a Vehicle of Disease. Sum- 
mary. A Practical Definition of " Pure Milk." 

II. The Case To-day 31 

The Cry for "Pure Milk": Can Pure Milk be Got? The 
Modern Milk Problem: The Old-style Milkman— An Anach- 
ronism To-day; The Modern Milk Mechanism. The Parties 
in the Case: The Demands of the Health Official; The Pres- 
sure on the Farmer; The Farmers' Need of Organization; 
Agricultural Aid; The Position of the Dealer; Railroads — The 
Transportation Problem; The Attitude of the Consumer; The 
Physician; Unofficial Organizations; The Legislator — Milk as 
a PoUtical Issue. Relative Importance of Milk Control. 
Conclusion: The State of the Case. 

III. The Sanitary Factors 64 

Early Developments. The Beginnings of the Clean Milk 
Movement: Certified Milk. The General Clean Milk Move- 
ment: The Score-card Method of Inspection; Rational 
Methods in Clean Milk Production— The North System; 
Amendment of the Dairy Score Card. Infant Welfare Sta- 
tions. Laboratory Tests and Standards: Chemical; Bac- 
teriological; Contamination Tests. The Tuberculin Test. 
Pasteurization: Methods; General Pasteurization the In- 
surance against a General Danger. Clarification and Other 
Processes. Publicity of Ratings. Contests, Conferences, 
Exhibitions. The Grading of Milk: Grading Systems. 

ix 



X CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 
IV. The Economic Factors 121 

Economic Value of Milk Production. Decline of Dairying 
in Certain Regions. The Crux of the Economic Question. 
The Plight of the Farmer: Is the Farmer Getting a Fair 
Price?; Another Aspect. Factors in the Final Cost of Milk. 
The Milk Dealer: Dealer and Farmer. Anomalies of Milk 
as a Commodity. Economic Effects of Sanitary Regulation. 

V. How Solve the Problem? 152 

The Great Need — Manifestation of Values: Principles of 
Grading; The Public Value of Milk. Costs and Prices. The 
R61e of the Laboratory. The Role of Inspection : Dairy Dem- 
onstration. Organization and Administration: State and 
Local Legislation. Local Differences. Centralization, Co- 
operative Plans, Municipalization. The Gist of the Matter. 
Who Is to Solve the Problem? 

References 177 

APPENDICES 

A . >Some Milk Statistics 185 

B. Grading Systems 189 

C. TheNorth System 203 

D. Costs and Prices 214 

E. Local Experiences and Investigations 225 

F. Milk Products 253 

Index 255 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Figure Page 

Milk in Politics Frontispiece 

1. Composition of Cow's Milk, Showing Variations 6 

2. Commercial Appeal on Economic Grounds 8 

3. The Long vs. the Short Haul 17 

4. Systems of Milk Supply 37 

5-10. Typical ''Milksheds" of Large Cities: 

5. New York 39 

6. Philadelphia 41 

7. Boston 43 

8. Chicago 44 

9. Washington 45 

10. Milwaukee 47 

11. The Small-mouth Milking Pail 79 

12. Time and Temperature for Milk Pasteurization 104 

13. Commercial Appeal on Sanitary Grounds 106 

14. Commercial Appeal on Sanitary Grounds 107 

15-20. Relative Retail Prices, 1890-1915: 

15. Milk and Fresh Eggs 128 

16. Milk and Potatoes 129 

17. Milk and Round Steak 130 

18. Milk and Bacon 131 

19. Milk and Wheat Flour 132 

20. Milk and Five Staple Foods 133 

21. Retail Price of Milk Compared with Costs of Production 134 

22. Profit from Different Cows .135 

Plate 

1. Interior of a High-class (Certified) Dairy Stable, .opposite page 68 

2. Ordinary Dairy Stables in Which Clean Milk Is 

Produced 

3. Ordinary Dairies and Extraordinary Dairymen . . . 

4. (a) Bacteria Plates, (b) Dirt Tests 

5. (a) Home Pasteurizer, (b) Results of Clarification 

6-7. Primitive Conditions in the Milk Industry 

8-14. Advanced Conditions in the Milk Industry . . . 

15. Laboratory of a Large Modern Milk Plant 

16. A Small Municipal Milk Laboratory 

xi 





" 80 




" 83 




" 93 




" 109 




" 110 




" 110 




" 145 




" 166 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

CHAPTER I 

WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 

That there exists to-day a large and, in many 
instances, acute milk problem is being increasingly rec- 
ognized. Most persons, however, appreciate the nature 
of the matter no further than that it involves a '^cam- 
paign for pure milk" which appears to them similar to 
the movements for other municipal improvements. 
Even to the well-informed citizen the factors and persons 
involved — the dairy farmer, the middleman dealer, the 
municipal official — appear in no distinct perspective; he 
is only vaguely aware of the contentions of these differ- 
ent parties, except as newspaper publicity may occasion- 
ally bring one or another of them to the fore; his interest 
usually goes no further than a jealous watchfulness of 
the price of the daily family supply; he entertains, there- 
fore, no particular ideas as to improvements and read- 
justments and the ways of bringing them about. And 
this is no wonder when the officials and legislators to 
whom the public looks for remedies are themselves fre- 
quently puzzled for an answer to this much-debated 
question. 

At the outset, therefore, the prime underlying con- 
siderations must be well borne in mind. 

Among all food products milk gives rise to a peculiar 

1 



2 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

question. One hears nothing, in any general and con- 
tinuous sense, of a beef or a bread problem. Why, then, 
a milk problem? 

That such exists is briefly explained by the conjunc- 
tion of two conditions: 

Milk is one of the most valuable and most largely used 
of all foods. 

It is the food which is most apt, by far, to be dangerous 
to health. 

This second condition depends very largely upon the 
fact that, in this country at least, milk has customarily 
been consumed raw, without the cooking, or half- 
cooking, which has always protected civihzed man 
against infection in animal food. 

'^Milk," wrote Professor William T, Sedgwick, years 
before the problem reached its present acute form, ^'has 
always been one of the most trusted of human foods. 
Clothed in a veil of white; associated with the innocence 
of infancy; of high repute for easy digestibility; believed 
to represent in perfection a natural dietary, popular and 
cheap, — milk has always deservedly held a high place 
in public esteem. Of late years, however, while main- 
taining its reputation in respect to cheapness, food 
value, blandness and digestibility, it has, in the eyes of 
physicians and sanitarians at least, come to be regarded, 
while in the uncooked condition, with general sus- 
picion. '^ ^ * 

This well-founded suspicion has developed with the 
rise of three branches of sanitary science : bacteriology, 
which has demonstrated the readiness with which milk 
may be contaminated and act as a medium for the 

* Note numbers refer to list of references at end of Chapter V. 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 3 

growth of germ life; epidemiology, which has searched 
out countless instances in which it was the vehicle of 
disease; and vital statistics, which, in conjunction with 
clinical observation, has indicated the part played by 
bad milk in the preventable disease and mortality of 
infancy. The subject of safe, wholesome milk is there- 
fore directly related to the two principal fields of mod- 
ern public hygiene, — prevention of communicable dis- 
ease and conservation of child life. 

The milk problem, as we shall find in the course of 
these pages, is characterized by complication and con- 
fusion. Its complications are due partly to the pe- 
culiar sanitary and economic conditions of the milk 
industry, and partly to the difficulties of harmonizing 
the several human interests involved. Milk is pro- 
duced in quantities enormous in the aggregate, comes 
from animals liable to disease, and is handled by per- 
sons liable to diseases transferable by milk. It is, for 
the most part, under the care (or lack of it) of men 
whose education and experience know not the delicate 
science of bacteriology. It reaches the city consumer 
by a journey which is interrupted at frequent intervals 
for transference or handling, and at each stage there are 
chances of contamination and improper treatment. 
Finally, the consumer has no direct knowledge of its 
source, its history, and its sanitary quality when it 
reaches him. Even in the home, its final destination, 
it may, and frequently does, suffer impairment. Sani- 
tary measures must be carefully devised and correlated, 
and even with an adequate force of officials — frequently 
not available — regulations are not easy to enforce. 
When strictly enforced they may arouse the antagonism 



4 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

of farmers and dealers who assert that they are entitled 
to additional recompense for the sanitary precautions 
they are obliged to take. The price of milk, which 
then comes into question, is notoriously a subject of 
jealousy on the part of all concerned. Those who deal 
with the question find, therefore, that they face not 
only a sanitary problem, hut also an econoinic problem 
complicated by various human factors. 

While the necessity of a safe, wholesome milk supply 
is the same for all communities, the difficulties of ob- 
taining it are immensely increased in the case of the 
cities. The larger the community becomes, the farther 
it gets from the individual farmer and the nearer to 
the domination of the wholesale dealer and the com- 
plications incident to supplies drawn from many and 
distant sources. The milk problem is thus characteris- 
tically urban, but may exist in the smaller communities 
in greater or less degree. 



Some of the reasons for the title of this volume have 
now been suggested. Under the conditions of modern, 
urbanized life a complicated milk problem has arisen, 
involving such questions as: 

What is '^pure milk"? 

Is pure milk — or clean milk — or safe milk — or whole- 
some milk — practically possible? — and how can it be 
got? 

Will the public pay for it? . 

The importance of the practical question is shown 
by the fact that it has invaded politics and has figured 
in a number of States and cities as a political issue. 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 5 

This development brings out the fact that the several 
interests concerned are often in conflict with regulation 
or with each other. The appearance of milk in the 
political forum is perhaps a sign hopeful rather than 
otherwise, as indicating that this greatest of food 
problems has become the subject of a public discussion 
which may lead to justice to all concerned. 

MILK: A CHEAP AND UNIVERSAL FOOD 

Whole milk contains all the elements of nutriment 
and combines them in readily digestible form in the 
proportions of a balanced ration. Hence its use as a 
substitute for mother's milk for infants, as an important 
component in the diet of children, as a special diet for 
invalids, and as a considerable portion, directly or 
indirectly, of the diet of all adults. Its value in these 
respects is such that it must be considered a necessity 
of civilization, being in this sense a universal food. 

We need not here go into the details of the chemistry 
and dietetics of milk. Cow's milk varies in composition, 
but on the average good, unadulterated milk contains 
about 87 per cent water and 13 per cent solids. About 
one-fourth of these solids consists of protein compounds, 
i. e., tissue-forming and waste-repairing substances. 
Fats, in the form of butter fats, form one-third of the 
total solids. Butter fat occurs in globules throughout 
the milk, and it is upon the size and number of them 
that the creaminess of the milk consists. Carbohy- 
drates, which, like the fats, are energy-producing or 
fuel elements, make up somewhat more than another 
third of the solids, the most important of them being 



6 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



Fat J 



Total ^ 
Solids 



SOLJOS 
NOT 
FAT 



Water 



lactose, or milk sugar. 
The remaining 5 per 
cent of the solids con- 
sists of mineral mat- 
ter. Upon assumed 
allowable minima of 
these various com^po- 
nents official require- 
ments for '^fats'^ and 
^Hotal solids'^ are 
based. 

The greatest varia- 
tions are observed in 
the case of the fat 
content, which is most 
commonly taken as an 
index of the food value 
of any given milk. 

Consideration of the 
uses of milk leads to 
the broad conclusion 
that it is a great 
staple, the lessened 
use of which, either through popular fear of its pos- 
sible dangers or through a much increased cost of pro- 
duction, would be a grave disadvantage. 

Pecuniary Economy of Milk as Compared with other 

Foods 

More important than purely abstract laboratory 
figures of food values is the question as to how milk 
compares with other foods in relative economy. Facts 




Fig. 1. Composition of Cow's Milk, 
Showing Variations 

(Report on milk investigation, Boston 
Chamber of Commerce, 1915.) 



WHY THERE 7^ A MILK PROBLEM 7 

in this connection have been worked out and the fol- 
lowing conclusions drawn from them by the United 
States Department of Agriculture: — 

Bearing these things in mind, we see that milk at all but 
the highest prices assumed is a cheaper source of protein 
than any of the animal foods except cheese, very cheap meat, 
and salt fish. At usual prices skim milk furnishes protein 
more cheaply than any common animal food except salt fish. 
The protein of vegetable foods is less expensive, but, on the 
other hand, as prepared for the table is less thoroughly di- 
gested. Moreover, it is accompanied by such large amounts 
of carbohydrates that to secure much vegetable protein in 
the diet usually means an excess of the carbohydrates. 
Under ordinary market conditions milk, and even skim milk, 
is a cheaper source of body fuel than any of the usual animal 
foods except cheese and salt pork, but is a dearer one than 
the usual vegetable foods. Here again, however, the milk 
furnishes the ingredients in a form more readily and thor- 
oughly digested than the vegetable foods as ordinarily served. 
Milk, then, is fully as economical a source of nutrients as 
most animal foods, but is dearer than most vegetable foods. 
It has the decided advantage of having no waste, requiring 
no time for preparation, and being more digestible than the 
vegetable foods. . . . Both whole and skim milk at mod- 
erate prices are therefore to be ranked among the most 
economical of foods not only when taken as beverages, but 
also when used in preparing other foods. ^ 

Attention must be drawn, however, to the fact that 
with each cent's increase in price milk may lose, or 
seem to lose, its pecuniary advantage over some other 
article or articles (unless they also have risen), which 
then tend so far as possible to take its place. Some- 
times the rival is a milk product, such as skim milk 



8 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



Cost of Living 


In the JDast year 5 leading food jiroducts have 


risen in cost at an average of 




64% 




Potatoes advanced. .... .114% 


] 'S 


Beans advanced ..... 67%' 


MILK 


Codfish advanced 50% 

Eggs advanced 58%> 

Butter advanced 307o 


\ has only 
I advanced 

) 11% 


The answer is use more 1 


's 


Milk 


A Complete Food. | 


Clean — Pure — 


Safe 



^Reduce the Cost of Living: 



or evaporated milk. 
Substances of less 
dietetic value are 
likely to be substi- 
tuted in cookery, and 
its use as a table ar- 
ticle may be stinted. 
At the same time a 
certain increase in 
price may be inevita- 
ble, especially when 
prices are going up 
all around, as they 
are at present writ- 
ing. This question 
will be further con- 
sidered in later chap- 
ters. 

Science and Ex- 
perience 

The scientific de- 
ductions from the fig- 
ures for food values 

Fig. 2. Commercial Appeal on Eco- and prices are COn- 

NOMic Grounds firmed in the ordi- 

This, if accurate, is a legitimate and nary widespread USe 
useful kind of advertising based on the r -jy,;]]^ About one- 
importance of milk as a food. • i 7 i 

Sixth 01 the total lood 
of the average American family is furnished by milk 
and its products.^ The average per capita use of milk 
(as such) in the United States is estimated by the De- 




equals in food 
value either 



% LB. 
STEAK. 




1 QUARr 



Milk 



A Safe Food 
A Pure Food 
A Cheap Food 



Drink tl Youself — Feed it to the Children 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 9 

partment of Agriculture at six-tenths of a pint daily, 
or a quart and one-half for each family of five. (See 
statistics, Appendix A.) This means that an enormous 
capital and an extensively ramifying system of equip- 
ment and operation are necessary to furnish the total 
supply. Besides the above amount of milk consumed 
as such (either drunk or used in cookery) must also be 
considered that large amount (about three times as 
much) which is made into butter, cheese, condensed 
milk, etc. Many of the considerations applying to 
milk as such apply also to these derived products. 

The following reasons for the use of milk, adapted 
from a leaflet issued by the Massachusetts Dairy 
Bureau, summarize the matter in a general way: — 

It is cheap. 

It is nutritious. 

It is easily digestible. 

It is the best food for babies (mother's milk excepted). 

It should enter liberally into the diet of children. 

Many adults would be benefited by the use of more milk 
and less meat. 

More milk used in cooking would add the cheapest nutri- 
tion of its kind. 

Proper nutrition conduces to efficiency and long life, — ^in 
other words, to good health. 

MILK: A SANITARY DANGER 

The widespread use of milk has, however, another 
and an unfavorable aspect. While this universal food 
affords vast benefit, it is also, to a certain degree, the 
agent of disease. Of all foods it has in this respect the 
greatest potentiality. 



10 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

THE ''INVISIBLE CLOAK'' OF 
CONTAMINATION 

Dirt and Milk 

Though it is not fanciful to speak of milk as a symbol 
of beneficence, it must not be forgotten that its veil 
of innocence may hide possible dangers. Most white 
things readily show soiling; milk, as someone has re- 
marked, stands almost alone in absorbing without ob- 
vious sign all but the grossest contamination. The 
amount of dirt — to use the mildest term — which can 
be added to a bottle of milk without visibly affecting 
its virgin whiteness is almost unbelievable. Of each 
dose of such contamination some is dissolved, some half- 
floats in suspension among multitudinous obscuring 
fat-globules, and some settles to the bottom, where least 
likely to be observed: only a fraction remains on the 
top or otherwise visible. The ordinary milk bottle 
tells no tales. 

That the opportunities for such contamination under 
present-day conditions in the dairy industry are many 
is well recognized by all who are familiar with milk 
sanitation. In Fig. 3 is shown the long and broken 
route which may be required for country milk to reach 
the city consumer. At each stage of the journey is the 
possibility of contamination or deterioration of the 
product. Dirt and manure particles from the flanks 
and udder of the cow, hair and dandruff from her hide, 
the manurial dust of the stable, the questionable hands 
of the milker, the unclean milk pail contaminated with 
the decomposed dregs of the previous milking, or rinsed 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 11 

with polluted water, the unsavory straining cloth, im- 
perfectly cleansed pans, further handling in process of 
bottling, bottles and other utensils of doubtful cleanli- 
ness, — these, together with lack of proper cooling and 
frequently many hours of transportation, are some of 
the details which demand the attention of the milk 
sanitarian. If, as Sedgwick suggests, drinking water 
were derived in the same manner and passed through 
the same processes as milk — drawn from the body of 
an animal standing in a stable, by the hands of work- 
men of questionable cleanness, and subsequently 
handled as milk frequently is — few would care to drink 
it. ''It is clear," he adds, ''that milk requires and 
deserves even more careful treatment than water, for 
it is more valuable, more trusted and more readily 
falsified or decomposed," and also, as we shall note 
presently — the most important consideration of all — • 
it is a readier agent of infection. 

The dairy cow herself [as Dr. Charles E. North says] con- 
tributes a peculiar form of contamination. The udder is 
constructed like a sponge. There is a constant shedding of 
waste tissue from the lining of the udder. This udder waste 
often includes the products of udder inflammation. Such 
inflammations are so common they are present in some form 
in practically every dairy herd. Even when there is no ex- 
ternal evidence there is often internal inflammation dis- 
charging its products with the miik.^ 

Now what is the sanitary significance of all this? 

In the first place, no one wishes to eat or drink dirt, 
even that of the proverbial "peck of dirt." The various 
kinds of ordinary dirt may or may not be directly in- 
jurious to health. At the present time the tendency 



12 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

in sanitary science is to distinguish between the vari- 
eties that are, or may be, accompanied by infection, 
and those that ordinarily are not. Nevertheless dirt 
of any kind is in itself undesirable. 

The instinct of decency is not without meaning. It 
is a protective instinct, and it is supported by the 
general fact that dirt is suspicious. There are places 
where dirt is naturally to be found, but when it is 
^'matter out of place" it is a sign that something is 
wrong. We are not surprised to see muck in the 
gutter; we do not shudder at manure in a manure bin; 
but when we perceive foreign matter in a milk bottle 
we are rightly disquieted. The soiled hands of the day- 
laborer are the result of honest toil; the unwashed but 
milk-wet hands of the dairy worker excite revulsion. 

This instinct has applications which are without 
sanitary significance. But in the matter of food it is 
truly protective. We have spoken above of ''dirt" in 
a general sense. But ordinary dirt shades into filth, 
such as the manure of the cow stable : from contamina- 
tion it is but a step to pollution, and pollution may mean 
infection. 

It is possible to make theoretical distinctions be- 
tween various forms of contamination, and it is possible 
to devise practical measures which lay stress upon the 
more dangerous. But both decency and experience 
aver that we should avoid all forms of contamination. 
Decency is, in short, a rough (though, as we shall see 
later, an incomplete) insurance of safety. But even 
though we are able to secure complete safety by other 
means, we should still desire the greatest degree of 
decency that we can obtain. Decency, as North points 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 13 

out, '^distinguishes humans from animals. Decency 
adds pleasure and appetite to food. Cleanliness con- 
tributes most to decency. Milk may be safe because 
it is boiled but may be indecent because it is filthy." * 

Bacteria and Milk 

Dirt (using the word to include all forms of con- 
taminating matter) in considerable quantities may be, 
in itself, more or less deleterious to health. But it is 
the associated bacteria which constitute the real ob- 
jection or danger. Various forms of contamination are 
accompanied by various forms of bacteria, which may 
be more or less deleterious or dangerous. In the case 
of milk, they exert their effect upon the consumer either 
through their action upon the milk or through their 
infectious character. 

1. Fermentation, Decomposition. — Many of these or- 
ganisms thrive in milk, and in so doing alter its 
composition and excrete their waste products. The 
ordinary souring of milk is the usual form of fermenta- 
tion. It may be argued that such a fermentation as 
this is not necessarily harmful, soured and fermented 
products being used as foods or even as remedies. The 
answer to this is that if such products are desired they 
should be obtained by known and controlled processes. 
The fermentation or decomposition of milk by miscel- 
laneous, uncontrolled organisms is objectionable, and 
when the milk is to be used as food for infants and 
delicate persons it is dangerous. In every such process 
are produced greater or less amounts of substances 

* Dr. North rates milks according to safety, decency, and price. 
(See p. 155.) 



14 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

which tend to make the milk an unfit or deleterious 
food. 

The extent of such bacterial changes in milk from the 
time that it is drawn from the cow to the time it reaches 
the consumer depends upon three things: (1) the 
kinds and amounts of contamination, (2) the tempera- 
ture of the milk, and (3) the time in transit. The con- 
tamination can be reduced to a minimum, the tempera- 
ture can be kept low, and, if these two conditions are 
right, a reasonable time in transit can be allowed. 
Under practical circumstances some latitude must be 
permitted in the endeavor to approach the ideal, — 
namely, that milk should be clean, fresh, and cold. 

2. Infection. — A different case is that of infection. 
The germs of various diseases may gain access to milk, 
in which they live and frequently multiply. This is 
not merely a matter of contamination but of the trans- 
ference of the secretions of already infected animals or 
persons. Relatively small contamination may in this 
case result in virulent and far-spreading specific infec- 
tion. The unwashed hands of milker or milk-handler 
in an unrecognized stage of disease, infected manure 
from tuberculous cows, utensils which have been in- 
fected by washing in polluted water or in some other 
way: such are typical modes of infection. Polluted 
milk may at any time prove to be infected milk; it is, 
so to speak, a lottery of infection. Infection is pos- 
sible even with a high degree of visible cleanliness, for 
infected individuals may be unrecognized and the trans- 
ference of infectious matter undetected. Milk-borne 
disease, like other infection, ^^walketh in darkness." 

Special reference must be made to carriers of com- 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 15 

municable disease. Bacteriology has demonstrated the 
existence of many persons who harbor and emit germs 
of disease without themselves showing any symptoms. 
Such carriers have been demonstrated with respect to 
typhoid fever, diphtheria, septic sore throat, and a 
number of other diseases. While the percentage of 
carriers in the population is small, the evidence is that 
there are, in the aggregate, many such persons and 
many others who manifest only atypical, unrecognized 
symptoms of the disease of which they bear the infec- 
tion. Such facts must greatly increase the sense of inse- 
curity with respect to the sources of disease. It scarcely 
need be said that a proportionate number of carriers exists 
in the host of persons engaged in the handling of milk.* 

There are two possible measures against infection in 
milk, to keep it out, or to destroy it if there. The dif- 
ficulty or impossibility of keeping it out has just been 
indicated. There is immense importance, then, in 
being able to destroy it without material alteration of 
the milk. This, fortunately, can be accomplished by 
a form of insurance which will be discussed in another 
chapter — namely, pasteurization. 

BAD MILK AND INFANT MORTALITY 

Approximately one-fifth of the deaths occurring in 
the Registration Area of the United States are of in- 

* It was estimated, for example, by Health Commissioner Lederle of 
New York City, in 1912, that about 127,000 persons were engaged in 
handling the milk supply of that city, and that there might be perhaps 
a hundred typhoid bacillus carriers alone in this army of persons. 
Rochester, N. Y,, in order to guard against infection, by typhoid car- 
riers, of milk to be sold raw, has adopted the requirement of a blood 
test for dairymen and their workers. 



16 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

fants under two years of age. The largest single cause 
of mortality among these infants is diarrhea and en- 
teritis, to which one-quarter of the deaths is due. The 
latest available Census figures (1914) ascribe to this 
title in the Registration Area 43,532 deaths (under 
2 years), which argues a total in the whole United 
States of some 65,000. It is in this figure that we 
must look for the effects of bad milk so far as they are 
reflected in mortality. Unfortunately it is impossible 
to determine just what proportion of these deaths 
may be put down to bad milk as compared with such 
factors as improper methods of feeding and improper 
hygiene in other respects. We may, however, turn to 
some intensive evidence. 

Effects of Feeding Different Milks 

The normal and the best food, by far, for the baby is 
mother's milk. Such are the difficulties of artificial 
feeding under ordinary conditions that it is estimated 
that bottle-fed babies have only one-tenth the chance 
to live that breast-fed babies have.^ * 

There are, however, cases in which artificial feeding 
is deemed necessary; besides which, cow's milk must 
always play a major part in the weaning of infants and 
the feeding of young children. Milk for infants should, 
if possible, be of the highest original sanitary quality. 
If the raw product is of a lower quality, it should be 
pasteurized. The evidence is that it should be pas- 
teurized no matter what its quality. 

* From a careful analysis of a three months' study, the New York 
City Health Department determined that almost two and a half (2.4) 
times as many infants were attacked by diarrhea among artificially 
fed as among breast-fed infants. (Weekly Bulletin, June 19, 1915.) 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 



17 




Fig. 3. The Long vs. The Short Haul 
This cartoon, from the Chicago Health Department, brings out 
the contrast between natural and artificial milk supply, and 
suggests some of the difficulties inherent in the latter. 



18 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

An important series of observations was made some 
years ago by Park and Holt,^ illustrating the effects of 
feeding infants with several different grades of milk. 
The deleterious results of bad milk during the summer 
months are shown by the following table, summarizing 
the observations on six groups of babies. (The per- 
centages have been computed by the present writer 
from the original table.) * 

No. of Did Did Did 

infants well fairly badly Died 

Store milk 79 27% 29% 25% 19% 

Condensed milk 70 31 29 20 20 

Good bottled mUk 98 38 23 30 9 

Milk from Central Distributing 

Stations 145 58 23 16 3 

Best bottled milk 12 75 25 — — 

Breast feeding 31 55 22 . 5 22 . 5 — 



All cases excluding duplications 421 44% 25% 21% 10% 

In the winter observations no appreciable difference 
among the different modes of feeding was noted; what 
might be considered good results were shown in 93 per 
cent of the cases as contrasted with the 69 per cent 
indicated by the above table. 

* This study is open to criticism in certain respects. The small 
number of cases in the fifth group cannot be taken as a suflBcient basis 
for rating best bottled milk above breast feeding. The number in the 
breast-fed group is also rather smaU for the calculation of significant 
percentages. Nor is distinction between raw and heated milk made 
in this table. The element of care of the infant (as weU as other factors) 
in the different groups is discussed by the authors as a separate, im- 
portant consideration taken into account in their conclusions, certain 
of which are quoted below. There is no doubt but that, were all other 
things equal, breast feeding would show decidedly the highest rating. 
The Park and Holt study, while not entirely satisfactory, is here quoted 
on account of its general illustrative character. 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 19 

Special observations were made on the effect of pas- 
teurized as opposed to raw milk, as summarized in the 
following table: — 

Kind of milk S* S-^ ^- o.S os 5 m gj P a; >> 

^ 3^3 ^"BcJcSSP cS.3 OS'S 43 

Pasteurized milk, 1000 to 50,000 

bacteria per c.c .41 31 10 3 4 oz. 3.9 1 

Raw milk, 1,200,000 to 20,000,000 

bacteria per c.c 51*17 33 5.5 3.5oz. 11.5 2 

The results set forth in the first of the above tables 
cannot, indeed, be taken as indicating exactly the 
effects of the different kinds of milk, for the elements of 
care of the infant in the different groups was also of 
influence. The following extracts from the conclusions 
of the authors, who endeavored to sum up all factors, 
must, however, be taken as indicative: — ■ 

During hot weather when the resistance of the children 
was lowered, the kind of milk taken influenced both the 
amount of illness and the mortality; those who took con- 
densed milk and cheap store milk did the worst, and those who 
received breast milk, pure bottled milk, and modified milk 
did the best. The effect of bacterial contamination was very 
marked when the milk was taken without previous heating; 
but, unless the contamination was very excessive, only slight 
when heating was employed shortly before feeding. 

* Thirteen of the 51 infants on raw milk were transferred before the 
end of the trial to pasteurized milk because of serious illness. If these 
infants had been left on raw milk, it is believed by the writers that the 
comparative results would have been even more unfavorable to raw 
milk. 



20 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

When milk of average quality was fed sterilized * and raw, 
those infants who received milk previously heated did, on 
the average, much better in warm weather than those who 
received it raw. The difference was so quickly manifest and 
so marked that there could be no mistaking the meaning of 
the results. The bacterial content of the milk used in the 
test was somewhat less than in the average milk of the city. 

The study just quoted, while not conclusive in all 
details, may be taken as roughly indicative of the effects 
of good and of bad milk, of raw and of pasteurized 
market milk, on infants. We need not go into the 
complex question of the mechanism of the effects of 
bad milk on the delicate infant organism. Specific 
germs may cause gastro-intestinal disorders and mal- 
nutrition in infants, and excessive numbers of germs of 
any kind are dangerous. The reason for the greater 
prevalence of such maladies and of the greater infant 
mortality during the summer months is: (1) That dur- 
ing that season milk is much more likely to be fer- 
mented, and (2) that warm weather lowers the vital 
resistance of the infant organism so as to induce gastro- 
intestinal disturbances. While the latter of these 
factors may indeed be the more important, attention 
must be paid to both. 

Such considerations as we have now viewed are sub- 
stantiated in the experience of physicians and are re- 
flected, though to an indeterminate extent, in the statis-^ 
tics of infant mortality already cited. 

It would be desirable to know the exact weight of 
milk supply in infant hygiene, — a weight which un- 
doubtedly has been exaggerated in some quarters. 

* Heated to 165° F. for 30 minutes. 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 21 

Large groups of deaths are caused by congenital dis- 
eases and diseases of early infancy, which are respon- 
sible for 35 per cent of the deaths under one year of 
age, and by respiratory diseases such as acute bron- 
chitis, pneumonia, and broncho-pneumonia (15 per 
cent), as compared with diarrhea and enteritis (26 per 
cent), the group affected directly by milk supply. And 
in respect to all these groups the care given the infant 
in regard to methods of feeding, clothing, ventilation, 
avoidance of infection, etc., as well as the prenatal care 
of the mother and the quality of medical and midwife 
attention, are the preponderant factors. In the most 
general terms, the fundamental causes of infant mor- 
tality are recognized to be ignorance and poverty. In 
the infant welfare movement the general lines of attack 
are, therefore : first and chiefly, education of the mother, 
and, secondly, elimination of evils associated with 
poverty. Those who advocate milk control under the 
impression that it is the chief means of attacking infant 
mortality would do well to correct their judgment by 
considering also the other factors involved.'' Improve- 
ment of milk supplies does, however, take its place as 
an essential part of the general program, with the ob- 
ject of ensuring safe, wholesome milk for infant-feeding 
at a price within reach of the poor. 

MILK AS A VEHICLE OF DISEASE 

The readiness with which milk may become infected 
and transmit disease has already been mentioned. The 
following section, therefore, will be devoted to the 
briefest possible summary of the charges which epi- 
demiology makes against raw milk. 



22 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

Diseases Transmissible by Milk 

The following are the principal diseases transmis- 
sible by milk : — 

From human sources: typhoid fever, diphtheria, 
scarlet fever, septic sore throat (epidemic tonsillitis), 
tuberculosis. 

From the cow: tuberculosis, septic sore throat, and 
other diseases of bovine origin. 

(Milk-caused gastro-intestinal disease of infants was 
discussed in the last section.) 

''Milk as a cause of epidemics of typhoid fever, 
scarlet fever, and diphtheria" is the title of a study 
made by Dr. John W. Trask of the United States Pub- 
lic Health Service, in which he collected and tabulated 
the summaries of 317 milk-borne epidemics of typhoid 
fever, 125 of scarlet fever, and 51 of diphtheria.^ This 
is the most extensive tabulation which has yet been 
made, but in addition to the instances recorded it is 
certain that many epidemics have gone unrecorded, 
while countless scattered cases of milk-borne infection 
must have escaped notice. Rosenau ^ mentions how a 
single city, Boston, suffered from milk-borne epidemics 
in the space of four years, giving the following figures 
(greater Boston) : — 

1907 Diphtheria : 72 cases 

1907 Scarlet fever 717 

1908 Typhoid fever 400 

1910 Scarlet fever 842 

1911 '^Tonsillitis" 2,064 

4,095 



WHY THERE />S A MILK PROBLEM 23 

The epidemic of 'tonsillitis/' or septic sore throat, 
put down in this table was notable not only on account 
of its extent but also because it was spread by raw milk 
derived from a supply subject to expert sanitary super- 
vision. The disease has been brought into prominence 
through a number of epidemics in recent years. ^^ In 
some instances the infection has been ascribed to 
human sources, e. g., carriers of streptococci; in others 
it has been ascribed to udder inflammation in dairy 
cows. 

The transmission of bovine tuberculosis to man 
through the medium of milk is now well recognized. 
The question of the amount of human tuberculosis of 
bovine origin has been the subject of much research, 
conspicuously by British and German commissions and 
the Research Laboratory of New York City. We can 
treat the subject but summarily here. Dr. William H. 
Park has summed up the evidence and concludes that, 
in New York City (italics inserted) : — 

About 7 per cent of the infants and young children under 
5 years of age dying from tuberculosis do so because of in- 
fection derived from infected milk or milk products. Fatal 
tuberculosis due to bovine bacilli is rare in those over 5 years 
of age, but, on the other hand, infection of the lymph nodes 
is frequent; 30 per cent or more of tubercular lymph nodes 
occurring in children between 5 and 16 are contracted 
through bovine bacilli. ^^ 

Applying Dr. Park's figure to the percentage of 
deaths from tuberculosis under five years of age hi the 
Registration Area (approximately 7 per cent of the 
total tuberculosis) would indicate (omitting the rare 



24 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

deaths above five years of age) that about one-half of 
1 per cent of all tuberculosis deaths are definitely due 
to the bovine type. Another authority^ Ravenel, holds 
that there is a possibility of the bovine bacillus chang- 
ing its type after becoming rooted in the human sub- 
ject, which, if true, would mean that there is more 
tuberculosis of bovine origin than we can now 
prove. 

While the above estimated mortality is not very 
great (amounting to about 500 deaths per year in the 
Registration Area) as compared with the mortalities 
from a number of other preventable diseases, it must 
be remembered that there is a much larger number of 
serious non-fatal cases and also that the amount of 
tuberculosis from this source may be greater than is 
now supposed. 

In a summary of the researches, Rosenau ^^ states 
that '^ about one-quarter to one-half of all cases of 
tuberculosis in children under five years of age is as- 
sociated with the bovine type," probably derived in 
all cases from cow's milk. The great bulk of the human 
tuberculosis bacteriologically identified as bovine is in 
the form of generalized, abdominal, and glandular 
tuberculosis of children. The percentages of mor- 
tality given by Rosenau for the age-groups '^ under 5," 
''5 to 14," and '^ 15 and over," when applied to the cor- 
responding numbers of total tuberculosis deaths in the . 
U. S. Registration area for 1913 in those age-groups, 
result in a total of 1925 deaths, or 2.1 per cent of all 
tuberculosis deaths, as due to the bovine type. This 
is considerably higher than the above estimate based 
on Park's figure. Rosenau ^^ himself says, 'Mt is now 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 25 

estimated that perhaps seven per cent of the tubercu- 
losis in man is of bovine origin." The basis of this 
estimate does not appear; in view of the others it looks 
very liberal. 

Altogether, while it seems to be impossible to state 
at present the exact amount of human tuberculosis of 
bovine origin, it is to be concluded that tuberculous 
milk, though not the overwhelming menace it is some- 
times thought to be, is a distinct factor in the milk 
problem. 

Tubercle bacilli may be detected in market milk. 
Evidence from four typical American cities (Chicago, 
New York, Washington, Rochester, N. Y.), summed 
up by Rosenau,^^ shows that out of a total of 551 
samples examined the bacilli were found in 46, or 8.3 
per cent. This figure is doubtless an underestimate, 
for the laboratory methods may fail to detect the bacilli 
when present only in small numbers. At Roches- 
ter, N. Y., 12.65 per cent of milk samples taken from 
185 retailers reacted to animal tests for tuberculosis.^^ 
Unfortunately such tests give no indication of the 
numbers of tubercle bacilli in the samples. 

Tuberculous cows infect the milk through tubercu- 
lous udders, but more largely through the manure, in 
which the bacilli are excreted in great numbers and 
which gains access to the milk at milking time. The 
infection is derived not only from obviously tuber- 
culous cows but also from many which show no phys- 
ical signs of the disease and whose condition can be 
determined only by the tuberculin test, to which fur- 
ther reference will be made in a later chapter. 



26 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

SUMMARY 

We have seen that there are two general dangers to 
health in public milk supplies: (1) general bacterial 
contamination and (2) specific infection. Both of 
these are aggravated by modern conditions of city 
milk supply and even of the supplies of comparatively 
small towns, which may be derived and handled in a 
similar manner. Collection of milk from many separate 
farms, more handlings than ever before, and longer 
journeys favor greater bacterial contamination and 
alteration. The mixing of many milks to make up 
the larger supplies favors the spread of infection to 
hundreds of unsuspecting consumers. 

Milk-borne disease is indicted by Dr. Charles E. 
North as follows, under the title, ^^Wliy milk should 
be pasteurized " : — ^^ 

A . Raw Milk Causes Infant Deaths. 

Twenty-five per cent of all deaths are of children under 
five years of age. 

More children die from intestinal disease than from other 
causes. Children's food is chiefly milk. 

Dirt bacteria, harmless to adults, irritate and inflame the 
intestines of children. 

B. Raw Milk Causes Septic Sore Throat. 

Septic sore throat is a violent form of tonsillitis. 
It is often followed by acute articular rheumatism, erysipe- 
las, peritonitis, endocarditis and other serious inflammations. 

Boston, Mass. 1,043 cases from one raw milk supply 

Boston, Mass. 227 

Chicago, 111. 10,000 

Baltimore, Md. 602 

Cortland-Homer, N. Y. 669 



(( 


(( 


il 


il 


il 


11 


il 


li 


11 


il 


11 


a 


C( 


(( 


il 


11 


11 


11 


(C 


t( 


(I 


a 


11 


11 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 



27 



The disease attacks adults chiefly. There are often deaths. 
Bacteria in sore udders of cows closely resemble bacteria 
found in these sore throats. 

C. Raw Milk Causes Typhoid Fever. 

Trask has collected records of 317 outbreaks of typhoid 
traced to raw milk. Here are a few : — 



500 cases from one raw milk supply 



270 " ' 




59 " ' 




182 '' 




262 '' ' 




107 '' ' 




307 '' ' 





Glasgow, Scotland 
Cologne, Germany 
Port Jervis, N. Y. 
Springfield, Mass. 
Oakland, Cal. 
Montclair, N. J. 
Stamford, Conn. 



D. Raw Milk Causes Tuberculosis. 

One hundred and ninety-one tuberculous cows were taken 
out of the most celebrated certified dairy herd of 632 animals 
in November, 1914. In December, 72 tuberculous cows 
were found in a herd of 86 in a model dairy where every ex- 
pense and precaution had been taken. 

Tuberculosis is very common and the majority of dairy 
herds contain tuberculous cows. 

Authorities estimate that 75 to 90 per cent of human 
beings have tuberculosis at some time during their lives. 
Most of this is human, but some of it is bovine. 

Tabulation by Park and Krumwiede of 1038 cases of 
tuberculosis showed the following: — 

Cases Bovine Per cent 

Adults over 16 years 686 9 1.3 

Children 5 to 16 years 132 33 25 

Children under 5 years 220 59 27 



Total 1,038 101 



10 



28 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



E. Raw Milk Causes Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria. 

One hundred and twenty-five epidemics of scarlet fever 
due to milk have been collected by Trask. A few examples 
are as follows: — 

Scarlet Fever 



Buffalo, N. Y. 


57 cases 


from one raw 


milk supply 


Washington, D. C. 


33 " 






London, England 


284 " 






Beverly, Mass. 


6 " 






Liverpool, England 


59 " 






Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 


45 " 






Boston, Mass. 


195 " 







Diphtheria 
Fifty-one epidemics collected by Trask. A few to illus- 



trate : — 






Brookline, Mass. 


12 cases 


from one raw milk supply 


Los Angeles, Cal. 


35 " 


U (( 11 U il 


Wellsville, N. Y. 


84 " 


ic il a a (I 


Clifton, Ohio 


36 " 


(I a 11 (I (( 


Hyde Park, Mass. 


69 " 


U U (I U 11 


Warwick, R. I. 


64 '' 


U U (( u u 



It would be interesting to know exactly what relative 
part is played by milk in the transmission of com- 
municable diseases. Exaggerated statements are made 
by well-meaning but uninformed persons, and the im- 
pression is sometimes given that milk is little if at all 
short of a poison. This is deplorable, for the truth is 
that milk is, on the whole, an exceedingly valuable food 
even though, under wrong conditions, a source of 
danger. Exactly how great this danger is, as com- 



WHY THERE IS A MILK PROBLEM 29 

pared with that from other possible sources of disease, 
is a question which the data of sanitary science are 
not as yet sufficient to answer. For present practical 
purposes we may say, in the words of an investigator 
who has made a noteworthy examination of the evi- 
dence on the question, ^^ that ^Hhe accumulated evidence 
of scores upon scores of definitely demonstrated milk- 
borne epidemics is enough to show that raw market 
milk is always a risky food." 

A Practical Definition of ^^Pure MilV^ 

To sum up the whole matter, we wish milk which is: 

1. Free from infection of human or animal source. 

2. Free from dirt, filth, and other foreign matter. 

3. Free from deleterious bacterial contamination or 
development. 

4. Free from adulteration and of known food value. 
Such milk may, in a practical sense, be termed 

'^pure." 

These requirements may further be summed up in 
the three words : safety, decency, nutrition. 

Taking safety and decency as the objects of sanita- 
tion per se, we shall find that if we secure milk which 
meets the requirement of decency, or cleanliness, in 
the highest degree, we have gone a long way toward 
obtaining also safety. But experience shows that the 
two conditions are by no means synonymous and that 
if safety is to be entirely ensured the product must be 
subjected to a precautionary process — such as pasteur- 
ization — before using. Neither a clean milk which is 
still somewhat unsafe nor a safe (pasteurized) milk 
which is unclean meets the requirements. 



30 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

So much for the general sanitary desiderata. In 
succeeding chapters will be considered the means of 
attaining them and the practical difficulties and 
personal factors which frequently complicate their 
attainment. 



CHAPTER II 

THE CASE TO-DAY 
THE CRY FOR ''PURE MILK'' 

Publicity on such facts as have been outHned in the 
last chapter has resulted in a general demand for ^'pure 
milk," — a demand associated in the public mind with 
the general movement for ^^pure food." A language 
of milk '^ horrifies" has been developed, based at one 
end on more or less exaggerated fact and on the other 
on the fear emotion of the public. Sanitary reformers, 
enterprising health officials, lecturers, and writers 
have vied with each other in vivid picturing of the 
menaces of impure milk. Bacteria in milk have been 
branded as the ^^ invisible murderers" that produce the 
'^slaughter of the innocents." Newspapers eager for 
popular sensation have been quick to see the publicity 
value of all this and have given it columns of space. 
Some have even conducted inspection campaigns of 
their own, professing their inability completely to 
tell the '^unbelievable truth of the unsanitary condi- 
tions which have been existing." As the result of their 
efforts they have announced the '^ cleaning of the 
Augean stables in a day," and have then turned the 
matter over to be dealt with by the *' angered au- 
thorities." 

The following utterances quoted in a recent news- 
paper account of a milk inspectors' meeting, headed 

31 



32 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

''Mr. Milk Supply is worse than Mr. Barleycorn/' are 
fair examples of the harrowing type: — * 

Fifty per cent of the milk that goes to the creamery for 
pasteurization is filthy, utterly unfit for food. 

The farmer is hopeless — dirty, mostly ignorant, careless. 
Because he can't get enough for his milk he won't give good 
milk. 

We have found to our dismay that dealers on whom we 
have been depending have been permitting large numbers 
of diseased cattle in their herds. 

We can't get the right kind of legislation. 

The politicians are playing a poHtical game with the 
farmers. We've got to depend on our own efforts. 

There are only two grades of milk — good milk and bad 
milk. The rest are simply grades of dirt. 

Such utterances have awakened public attention, 
but they have had at the same time an undesirable 
effect on the minds of some persons. Just as pubhcity 
regarding tuberculosis has had as a by-product an 
undue dread of consumptives, so has the ''pure milk" 
campaign made some people fearful of milk as such.- 
This has been perhaps an unavoidable incident of 
forceful publicity, but it is an unfortunate one now 
calling for correction. 

* The language and literature of exposure are not a new development. 
A notable example dates back to Smollett's description, in the novel 
"Humphrey Clinker," of the milk supply of eighteenth-century Lon- 
don: — "I need not dwell on the pallid contaminated mush which they 
call strawberries, soiled and tossed by greasy paws through twenty 
baskets crusted with dirt, and then presented with the worst milk, 
thickened with the worst flour, into a bad hkeness of cream; but the 
milk itself should not pass unanalyzed, the produce of faded cabbage 
leaves and sour draff, lowered with hot water, frothed with bruised 
snails, carried through the streets in open pails, exposed to foul rinsings 



THE CASE TO-DAY 33 

Dairies, recognizing the state of the pubhc mind, 
have taken to advertising, with the catch-phrase ^^pure 
milk.'' Letters are written in the newspapers demand- 
ing it. Legislators introduce ' ' pure milk bills " designed 
to conciliate the consumer without arousing the farmer. 
Civic organizations make it a major issue, the subject 
of campaigns. Investigations are constantly under 
way and '^solutions of the problem" are galore. Polit- 
ical platforms contain ''pure milk" planks so guardedly 
worded as to conciliate all parties concerned. Health 
authorities long ago promised that ''the consumer 
should be educated to the value of clean milk." And 
now agricultural authorities, awaking to their responsi- 
bilities, announce that "dairymen must be educated to 
the value of clean milk." And farmers hold indigna- 
tion meetings to protest that they never intended to 
produce anything but pure milk and that they have a 
natural right to be let alone by theorists. Everybody 
is trying to educate somebody else. "Pure Milk" is a 
phrase to conjure with. 

Can Pure Milk he Got f 

Much of this agitation is unaccompanied by clear 
understanding of the facts. A recent public health 

discharged from doors and windows, spittle, snot, and tobacco quids 
from foot-passengers, overflowings from mud-carts, spatterings from 
coach-wheels, dirt and trash chucked into it by roguish boys for the 
joke's sake, the spewings of infants, who have slabbered in the tin 
measure, which is thrown back in that condition among the milk, for 
the benefit of the next customer; and, finally, the vermin that drops 
from the rags of the nasty drab that vends this precious mixture, under 
the respectable denomination of milkmaid." Fortunately it takes much 
less than such a description to shock the more sensitive, better-informed 
modern milk-consumer! 



34 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

bulletin concludes a discussion of milk supply with 
the words, ''The choice is easy. Insist upon clean, 
pure milk." Everyone familiar with the subject has 
heard or read that sentiment hundreds of times. The 
phrase ^'pure milk'' suggests its opposite, ''impure 
milk," and it is a common popular idea derived from 
these terms that there are two clearly distinct kinds 
of milk, good milk and bad milk. Many people doubt- 
less believe that an inspector can thrust a tester into a 
can of milk and decide instantly in which category it 
belongs. The usual demand for "pure milk" is a de- 
mand for the best milk, and the notion is that one such 
best can be both defined and universally obtained. 
"The chief good to be accomplished at the outset," 
writes a newspaper in comment upon a milk campaign, 
"will be the arousing of public sentiment against any- 
thing but the purest milk." 

The trouble with this is that it requires an absolute 
ideal incompatible with practical conditions. Bac- 
teria in milk are impurities, but it should be recognized 
that a certain bacterial content must practically be 
permitted according to the purpose for which the 
product is to be used. Again, there are varying nat- 
ural degrees of nutritional value, and science has not 
determined exactly what is the most nutritive milk. 

The air would be cleared if we spoke of milks, thus 
emphasizing their differing characters. The scientific 
object is to gauge the qualities of milk of different 
characters and reduce them to categories. When this 
is done it is seen that instead of speaking of one ab- 
solute kind of pure milk, it is logical to define what 
shall be considered a "pure milk" for infants, or for 



THE CASE TO-DAY 35 

adults, or for cooking and manufacturing purposes, 
and then to endeavor to get the best possible milk for 
each purpose. 

To give an answer to the question, ^^Can pure milk 
be got?" it may be said that to raise all milk to the 
highest quality is impracticable, but to obtain a safe, 
suitable milk for each purpose is entirely possible. 
And this should be the immediate object of practical 
milk sanitation. 

THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

The present-day problem of milk supplies is rooted 
in an obvious condition of modern urban civilization — 
the wide separation of the producer and the consumer. 
It is also true, no doubt, that the conditions of urban 
life have made city babies and children, and city 
dwellers in general, more susceptible to the effects of 
bad or infected milk. But it is the long haul and the 
broken journey that are chiefly responsible for typically 
modern conditions. To illustrate roughly why the 
milk question has come to the fore in recent years with 
such insistence, we need only point to two contrasted 
pictures — the old-time milk supply and that of the 
present day in our cities. 

The Old-Sty le Milkman: An Anachronism To-day 

The old-time milkman kept his cows just as he 
would keep any other live stock. He went about his 
milking in the rough, untutored manner that he would 
go about any other farm work, without stopping to 
wash the dirt of honest toil from his hands, or to clean 
the caked manure from the udders of his cows. The 



36 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

family kitchen was the milk-house where cans were 
washed. He drove into the nearby town and with a 
dipper ladled out his product into whatever pans or 
pitchers were presented to receive it. There were sani- 
tary objections to these methods, but few or no sani- 
tarians to point them out. 

The consumer found no serious fault with any milk- 
man but the one who eked out his supply by means 
of the pump. 

Even to-day the old-style milkman survives, and 
many small towns and some large ones receive their 
supplies in some such manner as the above. In fact, 
he has by no means disappeared, but has simply be- 
come absorbed in the modern milk mechanism. 

The Modern Milk Mechanism 

With the growth of towns and the reaching-out into 
the country for milk supplies from comparatively dis- 
tant and unknown sources, the old evils were exag- 
gerated and new ones added. Whatever check existed 
in the knowledge of the consumer of his source of supply 
disappeared. The element of time, with the danger 
of stale or decomposed milk, became important. The 
product passed through the hands of a new class of 
men, the dealers or middlemen, who perhaps scarcely 
ever see a dairy farm. The railroad was called into 
requisition, introducing a new difficulty. Quantities 
of milk were mixed for shipment by wholesalers, thus 
making possible the infection of large supplies by a 
few quarts. The city milk plant, with its frequent 
lack of sanitation, came into existence. And now, at 
the present time, the old-fashioned methods of milk 



THE CASE TO-DAY 



37 




u->-u^^^°" 



fAR/Ws 



COUNTRY MILK PLANT 
OR COLLECTING POINT 




Fig. 4. Systems of Milk Supply 
Upper figure: simple or undeveloped state, small communities. Each 
dairyman retails his own supply, sometimes drawing from his neigh- 
bors. Lower figure: developed state, under city conditions. Milk 
depots for centralizing such operations as collection, pasteurizing, 
bottUng, and transferring milk by wholesale are in this case an 
economic necessity. In many communities a mixture of the two 
systems exists. 



38 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

production prevail to a large extent, with the modern 
disadvantages and dangers added to them. 

In this final form of milk supply the producer may have 
no idea whatever of the final destination of his milk; and 
the consumer, as a rule, neither knows nor cares where the 
milk which he buys comes from. The personal relation 
between consumer and producer is totally lost, and the 
middleman comes to hold the position of principal impor- 
tance, as the only person in touch with all. These circum- 
stances, and the very size of the system, tend to make it 
largely mechanical, and all connected with it merely sub- 
ordinate parts in a great machine which, for good or ill, 
must work on incessantly. . . . Under this system the milk 
is often two days old . . . before it is actually consumed. 
It also necessarily passes through many hands en route, and 
is therefore accessible to manipulation, adulteration and 
contamination.^ 

The following picture, given by Rosenau, sketches 
verbally the situation shown graphically in Fig. 3: 

Milk when it reaches the consumer in the city is often very 
different when compared to the same milk used on the farm. 
The farmer cannot understand why it is that the milk agrees 
with his baby, but makes the city baby sick. He forgets 
that the milk he sends to the city is often placed in dirty 
cans, perhaps rinsed with infected water or mopped ''clean'' 
with soiled cloths. The cans are often placed on the farm 
wagon and carted several miles to the nearest railroad sta- 
tion, where they stand some time in the sun and occasionally 
are exposed to dust, flies, and prying fingers of irresponsible 
persons. After this they are loaded on the milk car, which is 
perhaps warm. Arriving in the city, the cans again stand 
around the milk platform waiting for the city wagon, when 




Fig. 5. Typical "Milksheds" of Large Cities 

(a) New York (1905). (This and the next four maps are derived from 
Bulletins 81 and 138 of the Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Dept. of 
Agriculture. Since the investigations were made the milk octopus has 
in each case reached out still farther.) 

39 



40 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

they are carted to the city dairy. Here they are opened, 
the milk is tasted and smelled, and poured into a large vat, 
where the contents of the can is mixed with the milk from 
nimierous other cans. From this vat the milk is pumped to 
a clarifier, where much of the dirt and slime is removed. 
From there it may pass through other processes before it is 
cooled and bottled. The bottle may not have been properly 
cleansed and sterilized. This bottle is placed upon a wagon 
and carried to the householder, who thus receives milk that 
is several days old, has been frequently handled, has come in 
contact with a number of different containers and machines, 
and has had a good chance to deteriorate as well as to collect 
various kinds of dirt, with the possibility of picking up 
infection. City milk, stale, dirty, and bacteria-laden, is 
therefore a very different article from the fresh country 
brand. ^ 

Fortunately the worst of these features do not always 
prevail. There are special milks, such as certified milk, 
which are produced and handled with a high degree 
of precaution. There are dealers who take every care 
asked of them, and there are milk concerns which 
have their own inspection and testing systems and 
operate plants which are sanitary in every particular. 
But we are here discussing the general situation, and 
the former picture must be taken as typical of a great 
deal of city milk. 

This problem of urban milk supplies is not new, but 
it is constantly growing. It has been growing in years 
past and will continue to grow with the increasing ur- 
banization of our population.* It is, primarily, a mat- 

* As an extreme example of the condition toward which urbanization 
tends, one may take New York City, which receives very Uttle milk 



THE CASE TO-DAY 



41 




42 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

ter of the larger centers of population, yet so far is the 
urban social structure characteristic even of the smaller 
centers that they may have a similar problem. It not 
infrequently happens, for example, that a suburb or a 
town situated near a large city has milk supplies which 
come from that center and are originally drawn from 
some distant region; or such supplies may be dropped 
off from a main artery of railroad traffic. It is not, 
therefore, entirely a question of the size of the com- 
munity, but of local conditions. Even towns where 
the supply is derived from near by have their difficul- 
ties in obtaining satisfactory milk supplies. 

THE PARTIES IN THE CASE 

The human factor looms large in the milk question. 
Aside from the sanitary and economic factors involved, 
efforts at a just and harmonious solution have to con- 
tend with the different, and too often conflicting, in- 
terests of several distinct classes of men. Controversy 
has been aggravated and prolonged by ignorance of 
underlying facts, by distrust among the parties in the 
case, and by natural refusal to concede points not 
clearly proved. We shall sketch here the general 
grounds of these different standpoints. 

from within fifty miles of the city, its daily supply of 2,500,000 quarts 
being derived from 44,000 farms located in six different States (1912). 
Boston gets most of its supply from outside of a fifty-mile radius, 
drawing from six States and Canada. Chicago presents a somewhat 
different picture, most of its supply coming from comparatively near by, 
but in this case there are many separate sources of supply and com- 
plexity of milk routes. Such conditions, though cited from the largest 
cities, are illustrative of general tendencies under urban and even under 
suburban conditions. 



THE CASE TO-DAY 



43 




'^ » 



A 



.•/ 



V 



^ 



•^ 



4r 



-i: 



^ 

N 



^ 



^ 



N 



V 



<^ 



; >1 K 3 5 TV 



!^; 



cor/ TVECTI <^ l/T 



.^ 1. 



S Jo ao 30 40 



J 






M \ 



Fig. 7. Typical Milksheds 



(c) Boston (1905). 



44 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



THE DEMANDS OF THE HEALTH OFFICIAL 

The sanitarian and the health officer have naturally 
taken the leading part in the milk debate. On the 
whole they have had a fair hearing and there has been 
an inclination to heed their counsel when this was strong 




' r 

I L. 



^ ^ M^/////////////A 

/ 




' .1 







Fig. 8. Typical Milksheds 
(d) Chicago (1911). 

and definite. They have, however, labored under the 
disadvantage of having to deal with a matter involving 
difficulties if not complications and one apt to be over- 
shadowed by other public health problems. They have 
sometimes framed verbose or impossible regulations. 
They have often failed to impress the dairyman by 
meeting his practical objections. As one writer says: — 



THE CASE TO-DAY 



45 



The position of the boards of health has been difficult, for 
they have been charged by the farmers with ignorance of 
farm conditions, by the railroads with imposing impossible 



HanovenRi. 
E N N S Y L«-'-Ny A 




Fig. 9. Typical Milksheds 
(e) Washington (1911). Heavy dots show points from which milk 
cars start, largest shipping points enclosed by circles. 

orders as regards icing and other matters, and by contractors 
with the promulgation of regulations that were unnecessary, 
arduous and expensive.^ 

The active health officer or milk inspector must ex- 
pect more or less objection and misconception from 



46 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

those whom his activities affect. He must, therefore, 
be prepared to deal with difficulties and justify his 
course. 

THE PRESSURE ON THE FARMER 

■ It is from the producer, the dairy farmer, whether he 
retails his product himself or sells to a middleman, that 
the loudest opposition to higher sanitary requirements 
has come. His most frequent protestation relates to 
the price that he receives, — namely, that he cannot 
make sanitary improvements which necessitate greater 
expense and care without some increase in that price. 
He argues that his labor is becoming harder, his ex- 
penses heavier, and his margin of profit (if, indeed, it 
exists) smaller, while time-honored ways are being 
replaced by ^'new-fangled notions" which bring him 
no benefit. ''The complaint is," as an agricultural 
journal remarked not long ago, "that everything used 
in the production of milk has increased in cost during 
recent years, while the price of milk has remained prac- 
tically the same or [is] in some cases even less." 

In corroboration of this protest of the farmer a milk 
specialist of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture writes : — 

If the dairy farmers of this country were asked this ques- 
tion, ''What can be done to encourage the production of 
clean milk?" I am sure that nearly all would answer, ''Se- 
cure better prices and markets for our product." There- 
fore, the conditions as they exist to-day are these: many 
dairymen do not receive enough for their product to warrant 
any extensive changes or outlay, and many dairymen who 



THE CASE TO-DAY 



47 




Fig. 10. Typical Milksheds 
(f) Milwaukee (1911). This chart represents only milk shipped by 
rail; about as much again is brought in by wagon. (Bulletin 13, 
Milwaukee Bureau of Efficiency and Economy, 1912.) 



48 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

are paying no particular attention to better milk are receiv- 
ing the same price for their milk as those who are trying to 
market a clean, safe product. This state of affairs, one can 
readily see, does not encourage clean milk production; how- 
ever, we must work with the facts as they are. If we expect 
the farmers to produce better milk, we must assist them to 
receive a reasonable profit for their labor. 

In some sections of the country, dairymen state that the 
price received for milk is not sufficient to warrant their 
staying in the business. If it were not for the value the cows 
are to the farm, more dairymen would stop milking them, 
and take up some other line of agriculture. The question 
of prices and profit is a problem which we must meet. . . .^ 

Undoubtedly the economic pressure upon the dairy 
farmer is heavy, but the question how far his com- 
plaint on this score is justified and what the remedy is 
must be left for consideration in a later chapter. 

A contributing cause to the farmer's disquietude is 
his frequent ignorance and distrust of bacteriology 
and sanitary science. The ultraconservative farmer 
is apt to consider measures of milk sanitation as mere 
theory, as hobbies of the doctor or fads of the health 
officer. We cannot, of course, expect farmers to be 
versed in sanitary bacteriology, but we can expect 
them to so appreciate its aims as to act intelligently 
for the attainment of these. 

The farmer often bespeaks consideration of the 
hardships that beset his mode of life, with the plea 
that no further demands should be made upon him 
without corresponding additional compensation. Here 
is a typical example, taken from the letter of a dairy- 
man to a Massachusetts newspaper: — 



THE CASE TO-DAY 49 

Look at his [the milkman's] duties. Up in the morning 
around two o'clock three hundred and sixty-five days in the 
year; hustling to get the milk to his customers. He finally 
arrives home at eleven o'clock. Then comes the washing 
and sterilizing of bottles, cans, and utensils used. Then a 
late dinner, the teams to care for, the surrounding country 
gone over to collect the milk for next day. By the time it is 
all in, bottled, and iced for next morning's trade, it is perhaps 
nine o'clock. Hurry to bed, for two o'clock soon arrives, 
rain or shine. It has to go; no holidays or Sundays here. 
Where is the new cow coming from to take the place of the 
old one when she is gone? The blacksmith had a much 
larger bill the past six months; the milkmen are robbing the 

good people of — by asking them six cents a quart for 

milk when they should get ten cents, its value. 

Why are so many dairy farmers going out of business, 
five in our neighborhood in the past two years? A sixth 
one goes next month, myself. At a cent a quart increase in 
wholesale price Over four years ago I cannot make both ends 
meet in the milk business at the present cost of production. 
You people who think you are being imposed on better go 
dairy farming a while. 

The kind of complaint of which this is representa- 
tive, whether coming from the farmer-retailer or the 
farmer who sells to a middleman dealer, cannot be dis- 
missed without consideration. Its economic basis will 
be examined in a later chapter. That it denotes the 
attitude of many farmers, an attitude which must be 
taken into account in any practical examination of 
the milk question, is the point for present marking. 
Altogether, the disadvantages of the farmer are many, 
and his pleas demand the attention of reasonable men. 
*'The dairyman," as one of them puts it, ^^is trying to 



50 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

make a decent living in a legitimate way, is not trying 
to poison anybody, and does not like to be forced out 
of business nor to sell out to a trust. He does not want 
to raise the price of milk, and will only do so when 
forced to." If he is averse to altering his methods, 
tradition and lack of information are largely to blame. 
The case is well put by Rosenau: — 

The attitude of the farmer is often unfortunate, but he 
cannot be blamed for getting out of patience with the sub- 
ject. He is made the butt of the cartoonists and is hammered 
at from all sides. He is inspected and reinspected, preached 
to, lectured at, scolded, and the object of legal action. He 
is pestered with the enthusiast, the reformer, the sanitarian, 
the lawyer, the baby's mother, and the baby's doctor. He 
is showered with advice, some of it contradictory. In this 
predicament he does not know which way to turn. If the 
attitude of the farmer is often unfortunate, the attitude 
towards the farmer is frequently equally unfortunate. Too 
often he is regarded as a back number, unprogressive, in- 
competent, and even dishonest. As a class no finer stock 
is to be found in the world than the sons of the soil. The city 
replenishes its worn-out and effete inhabitants with the 
brawn, brain, and character of the country boy and girl. 
The harsh, arbitrary methods sometimes directed against 
the farmer are not only unjustified, but delay and complicate 
the solution of the milk question. Much quicker progress 
will be made through mutual respect, a helpful attitude, and 
a certain amount of patience necessary for all large sanitary 
reforms.^ 

The dairy farmer is pressed by the health authorities 
for better quahty of milk and by the dealer for mini- 
mum prices. He is not a recalcitrant; he is as glad to 



THE CASE TO-DAY 51 

help '^save the babies" as anyone else, but he must 
live. In many districts dairy farmers are in fact 
going out of business. Yet the milk supply must not 
only be kept up but be increased. The well-being of 
the farmer is necessary to that of society, and the 
maladjustment of the conditions under which he 
operates must be corrected. 

The Farmers^ Need of Organization 

The one conspicuous feature in the situation of the 
farmer is his lack of organization. In his relations 
with dealers and railroads he is at a great disadvantage 
in his inability to bargain collectively. It is no wonder 
that he is at the mercy of shrewd price-setting milk- 
buyers. If he carries on his business as an individual 
he is unable either to recognize the true nature of the 
conditions which he shares with other dairymen or to 
act effectively to secure his due. Organization among 
farmers would alter the whole situation. Such or- 
ganization would first of all protect and advance the 
farmers' collective interests, and might then perhaps 
proceed to such constructive work as the establish- 
ment of co-operative creameries and, in co-operation 
with agricultural authorities, the improvement of 
dairying methods and of agriculture in general. 

Farmers' organizations now exist, to be sure, but 
these have not, in general, been sufficiently close-knit 
and active to produce much impression on the situa- 
tion. Collective action has been spasmodic, short- 
sighted, unsystematic, accompanied by no continuous 
grip on affairs. Too many farmers have ^^ stayed out." 
The farmer is by nature a conservative and an in- 



52 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

dividualist, too ready to tolerate disadvantages. But 
if he is to hold his own under modern competitive 
conditions, he must, as a class, learn the lesson of or- 
ganization and collective action. Signs of a changing 
attitude are to be seen, as, for example, in the present 
efforts of organized producers in New England and the 
New York district to secure better milk prices (see 
Appendix E), but there is much to do in this direction 
if the individual farmer is not to continue to be forced 
out of business as a milk producer under present-day 
pressing conditions. 

The sympathies of a disinterested observer would 
likely be with the consumer, who is in darkness, and 
with the farmer, who suffers most under economic 
pressure. But the difference is that the consumer must 
look to the authorities for his protection, while the 
farmer can, if he will, better his own conditions. 

Agricultural Aid 

The chief external reliance of the farmer for the 
improvement of his status must be the agricultural 
authorities who are studying his problems on scientific 
principles. State and Federal departments of agricul- 
ture with their experiment stations, not to mention 
various agricultural colleges, are constantly carrying on 
investigations and publishing data and advice of ad- 
vantage to the farmer. A great deal of this work is 
specialized on the dairy industry. The following para- 
graph by Mr. H. N. Parker sketches the part played 
by such authorities : — 

The agricultural experiment stations naturally see the 
farmer's position and, perhaps, only less clearly, the con- 



THE CASE TO-DAY 53 

1 
tractor's. For years station men have been collecting data 

on dairying. They know, as no one else does, that the 
modern dairy farmer has large sums of money invested in 
his business and that he must be a highly trained man in 
order to succeed. They appreciate fully that the profits in 
dairying are not easy and that only careful management can 
reap them. Consequently, the stations have labored zeal- 
ously to get dairymen to adopt economical rations, to weed 
out non-productive or robber cows, to pay attention to 
breeding, and to be biologically clean, so that the products 
may be wholesome and of good flavor. . . . They know 
that dairying must pay a reasonable profit to be sound, 
hence the stations have tried to make the dairymen efficient 
and have protested when regulations have been proposed 
that sounded good and entailed expense, but yielded no 
adequate benefit. The work of the stations will grow in 
importance, for at present it is the hope of improving farm 
conditions that holds out the brightest prospect for a solution 
of the milk question.^ 

One cannot expect that farmers will become agricul- 
tural experts overnight. Nevertheless, eflficient farm 
management has a prime part to play in solving the 
milk problem, and there is substantial truth in the fore- 
going estimate of the role of agricultural authorities. 
Farming is not yet, for the many, a technological 
calling, but it is a trade demanding knowledge of 
scientific and business principles. It may be that 
agriculture will of economic necessity follow the mod- 
ern trend and become as specialized as manufac- 
turing. But that is, for the present, a development 
which interests only the comparatively few of special 
training and enterprise. Meanwhile the ordinary 
farmer must make the progress that is within his 



54 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

power, in which endeavor his chief advisers must be 
the agricultural authorities and many of his best text- 
books will be their bulletins. It rests with himself as 
to whether he will take advantage of his opportunities. 

THE POSITION OF THE DEALER 

The modern development of the milk business has 
brought into existence a highly important factor — • 
the person or concern known variously as the middle- 
man, distributer, retailer, contractor, or dealer. He is 
the successor of the farmer-retailer who enlarges his 
business by collecting and selling milk from his neigh- 
bors, but is a different type in that he is distinctly a 
business man. He occupies to-day, in the larger cities, 
the central position in the milk situation. Reaching 
far out into the country districts by means of the rail- 
roads, collecting and distributing on a large scale, he 
connects, at the same time that he separates, producer 
and consumer. This middleman business involves 
large investments of capital and is one of the ^'big 
businesses" of to-day. 

In milk controversies in the large cities it is the mid- 
dleman who seems to hold the key to the situation. 
Under ordinary conditions he virtually sets both the 
price paid to the producer and the price to be charged 
the customer, and he will not readily make concessions 
at either end. Being a better business man than the 
farmer, it is natural to infer that he reaps the lion's 
share of the profits. 

In certain respects, this concentration of the milk 
business is, as Rosenau points out, an advantage. It 
makes for economic efficiency and at the same time 



THE CASE TO-DAY 55 

tends to simplify sanitary supervision. Certain large 
dealers, recognizing the necessity of sanitation, have 
co-operated in the efforts of the health authorities and 
have estabhshed laboratories and inspection systems 
of their own. Such measures are not philanthropic, 
but have been undertaken as. good business manage- 
ment and in the desire to maintain a good standing. 
In the same way some have established bonuses for 
milk produced under superior sanitary conditions. 
Milk-borne disease is a bugbear of the large dealer 
and, to avoid it, he has been willing to go to consider- 
able trouble and expense and to adopt pasteurization 
and other precautions. The reputable dealer wel- 
comes better conditions in the milk industry, but he 
is not to be expected to go to extra expense that will 
place him at a disadvantage with his competitor. In 
fact the progressive, fair-minded dealer will co-operate 
in sanitary improvements, but naturally only so far as 
they are required by authority, or at least where they 
do not conflict with his interest as a business man. 

In relation to the farmer, the point of vantage of the 
middleman lends itself to price-squeezing in the pro- 
ducing districts. Of the two means of profit, the dealer 
finds it easier to keep down the price paid to the farmer 
than to raise the price received from the consumer. 
The producers in a given district may complain, but, 
unless they are organized, they must either take the 
price offered by the dealer who collects in that district, 
or none. 

It is no doubt to the advantage of the middleman 
to discourage agitation regarding conditions in which 
he holds the balance of power. Nevertheless, the 



56 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

situation in some quarters has reached such a pass that 
the abohtion of the middleman through the estabhsh- 
ment of farmers' co-operative seUing or through other 
co-operative or municipahzation plans is being seriously 
discussed. But this leads us to considerations which 
must be postponed to later chapters. 

RAILROADS: THE TRANSPORTATION 
PROBLEM 

A special matter which calls for attention in con- 
nection with the milk supplies of large cities is railroad 
transportation. Wherever milk is brought by rail from 
long distances special sanitary precautions are neces- 
sary, principally with regard to refrigeration, while 
the railroads find it necessary to institute divisions of 
milk transportation with provisions for special cars, 
fast milk trains, depots, etc. The Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, for example, a few months ago purchased at a 
reported expense of $300,000 thirty-six refrigerator 
cars to carry milk from northwestern New York and 
Pennsylvania into the cities of Philadelphia, Brooklyn, 
Baltimore, and Jersey City, the amount carried at 
that time being 265,000 quarts per day. These cars 
have a capacity of 12,000 quarts each, and brine and 
cold air facilities for holding the temperature down 
to 40° F. 

The transportation problem has appeared in acute 
form in certain regions. The question of rates has 
been taken up by the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
sion, which has held hearings, e. g. (in 1916) in Boston 
and Philadelphia. The complex situation in New 
England has also been made the subject of investiga- 



THE CASE TO-DAY 57 

tion by the Boston Chamber of Conmierce (see Ap- 
pendix E). Such investigations run into compUcations 
as to systems and rates which it is impossible to discuss 
here. 

It is, of course, difficult to say to just what extent 
the transportation question enters into the general 
milk problem, but it evidently constitutes one phase, — 
a phase, moreover, which is used as a background for 
exhibiting miscellaneous difficulties and grievances. 

It is worth noting, in passing, that, while suspicion 
has fallen upon '^ railroad milk," still, with the growth 
of cities, the milk supply must be drawn from greater 
and greater distances. Fortunately it is possible so 
to compensate for distance by means of proper precau- 
tions that a sanitary milk from two hundred miles 
away may be better and safer than one produced 
near by but subject to unfavorable conditions. The 
final quality of the product is the criterion. 

THE ATTITUDE OF THE CONSUMER 

The attitude of the consumer is, on the whole, nega- 
tive. As one health official puts it, ^'Milk is milk to 
the average consumer. A white fluid in a bottle, with 
a cream line, is about all he seems to be interested in." 
The agitation on the milk question is not carried on 
by the many but by the very few who have interested 
themselves and formed '^ consumers' associations" 
and the like. The great majority demand only a suf- 
ficient appearance of cream and the absence of ob- 
viously visible dirt, and are aroused only by an in- 
creased price. 

This attitude is unfortunate when there comes ques- 



58 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

tion of sanitary measures for which pubhc support is 
required. One authority goes so far as to say: — 

Probably the chief obstacle . . . lies at the consumer's 
end of the problem. ... It is still unusual to find even 
educated people willing to pay a cent a quart more for good 
milk when they find they can get an ordinary kind cheap. 
If the pubUc can only be brought to appreciate the fact 
that it is cheaper to pay a little extra for a good quality than 
to pay less for a poorer grade of milk, a great reform can be 
rapidly brought about. The question whether the milk 
supply can be generally improved depends thus upon the 
consumer. . . . This reform will come just as soon as the 
public is ready for it, and that will be just as soon as the 
consumer is ready to pay for quality.^ 

In a city which was attempting to enforce a tuber- 
culin-test ordinance, users of milk informed the health 
authorities : — 

They could see no difference between the milk from a 
tuberculin-tested herd and the milk from an untested herd. 
They have explained that the cream line was no lower, that 
the milk tasted no differently, and that they could see no 
excuse for paying a higher price for such milk. This attitude, 
more or less exaggerated, was apparent and general and of 
course makes for the defeat of a provision like that requiring 
the test. The dealer can quite safely oppose any require- 
ment \mtil the public demands it.^ 

There is this, however, to be said for the consumer: 
that his inability to judge or control conditions nat- 
urally makes him passive. His unwillingness to pay 
more for milk is not unjustifiable if he has no way of 
knowing that the quality is actually better. Far from 
expecting the consumer to take a direct hand in the 



THE CASE TO-DAY 59 

matter, one should look to health authorities and 
legislatures to perform their duty in ensuring that 
his welfare is protected. On this score he often has 
good ground for complaint in that even the most in- 
telligent inquiring citizens often find great difficulty 
in making out what the local milk situation is or which 
supplies are most worthy of patronage. 

A great deal has been said about educating the pub- 
lic to demand better milk at a just price, and the 
stimulation of such a demand is, to be sure, a good 
thing. But the best intentions of the consumer are 
ineffectual unless the public health authorities so deal 
with the situation as to make discrimination by the 
citizen simple and direct. As to the means of doing 
this, more will be said later. 

THE PHYSICIAN 

The medical profession has played a large part in the 
promotion of the sanitary milk movement, — most def- 
initely through the development of certified milk. It is 
the medical observer to whom we turn for knowledge of 
the relation of milk to the individual. In the case of 
the infant, the invalid, the convalescent, the doctor's 
choice of milk is important, and regulation of milks 
must therefore harmonize with medical requirements. 

UNOFFICIAL ORGANIZATIONS ' 

An important part has been played by unofficial 
organizations of public-spirited citizens and even by 
individuals. Civic bodies, such as women's clubs, have 
done much in stimulating the public sentiment which 



60 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

is a necessary preliminary to and power behind effective 
legislation. Milk distribution from infants^ milk 
depots has been a useful constructive activity.* In 
many ways such bodies have encouraged and supported 
health authorities, and they will continue to do so. 

THE LEGISLATOR: MILK AS A POLITICAL 

ISSUE 

Milk figures not infrequently as a political issue. 
A chapter might be written on milk in politics; it 
would, however, be more confusing than illuminating. 
An already contradictory subject is further compli- 
cated by the partisans of special interests. Legislators 
are too apt to aim at something less than a general 
solution of the problem. Some seek to gain favor with 
the city voter by ^^pure milk bills, ^' while others score 
with the farmers by their opposition to such bills. All 
this is unfortunate in its confusing and obstructional 
effect, but it has, at the same time, brought out the 
importance of the whole question with its several sides. 
It has shown the necessity of, first, unbiased legislation 
and, secondly, non-partisan administration of milk 
laws. 

Clarification of the whole matter will, it scarcely 
need be said, tend to remove it from political entangle- 
ment. Further, as regards the interpretation of milk 
laws by the courts, the adjustment of values is neces- 
sary as the basis of right decisions. 

* It is to be noted, however, that the distribution of milk is now 
considered by no means the most important part of milk station or 
infant welfare work. (See pp. 20-21, 87-88.) 



THE CASE TO-DAY 61 



RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF MILK CONTROL 

The question may well be raised as to the exact im- 
portance of milk control in the general sanitary field. 
Until recently no idea at all definite was to be had of 
this, but a tentative scale of relative values in public 
health work has been published by Dr. Charles V. 
Chapin,^ Superintendent of Health of Providence, R. I., 
in which, on a scale of 100, a value of 8 was assigned to 
milk supervision. Dr. Chapin, in a revision of the scale, 
has since, however, reduced his estimation of the milk 
figure to 2 per cent (sanitation, 1.7; adulteration, 0.3).^^ 
A similar scale has been worked out by Franz Schneider, 
Jr.,1^ of the Department of Surveys and Exhibits of 
the Russell Sage Foundation, assigning to milk control 
the value of 2.7 per cent. These figures, though tenta- 
tive, tend to indicate that the relative sanitary im- 
portance of milk control is not so great as has perhaps 
been generally supposed. It must be considered, how- 
ever, that the economic difficulties and demoralization 
of the vast dairy industry contribute greatly to the 
present importance of the milk problem as a whole. 

CONCLUSION: THE STATE OF THE CASE 

The present status of the milk question as outlined 
in the foregoing pages may be briefly characterized as 
follows : — 

1. The problem is both sanitary and economic. It 
involves the all-important question of health versus 
dollars — Will the consumer pay for sanitary milk? — 
and the correlative one: How, otherwise, is the dairy- 



62 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

man to make a living by producing it? Also the further 
one : How can sanitary milk be produced and distributed 
most economically? 

2. It arises from the separation of producer and con- 
sumer and from the complexities necessited by urban 
development. It is characteristic of centers of popula- 
tion and tends to become more acute the larger these 
centers and the greater and more distant the territory 
from which the milk supply is drawn. At the same 
time all milk supplies, under whatever conditions and 
in all communities, are subject to the same funda- 
mental sanitary considerations; hence even compara- 
tively small communities may have more or less of a 
milk problem. 

3. A practical difficulty in its solution is that several 
distinct and important parties are concerned in the case: 
not only must the sanitarian, the health official, and 
the consumer be heard, but also the producer and the 
distributer. Hence there is always debate, often con- 
troversy, and sometimes a ''milk muddle." The task 
is to get the facts free from the coloring of special in- 
terests and prejudices and do justice to all parties. 

At a recent Federal hearing in New England the 
following statement, summarizing the acute phase of 
the matter, was made by a representative of large 
milk interests: — 

An important point which Mr. made, under cross- 
examination by Attorney-General , was that the great 

milk problem, both in regard to cleanliness and price, is 
pressing for a solution; and whether it is solved now or 
later, the agitation by the public will continue until the 
solution is reached and the matter is settled once for all on a 



THE CASE TO-DAY 63 

basis fair alike to producer, shipper, and consumer. Milk, 
the witness said, is so vital to a large part of any metro- 
politan community that in some degree it may not be too 
much to say that life depends upon it — and a matter so 
close to the life of the community enforces constant at- 
tention.^^ 

In the following chapters the aim will be to outline 
the measures of sanitary control, to show wherein 
previous and present regulation is inadequate, to set 
forth the general economic considerations, and to de- 
duce the main principles of equitable adjustment. 



CHAPTER III 
THE SANITARY FACTORS 

With a view to indicating the present status of the 
sanitary control of milk supplies, we may now con- 
sider briefly each of the means of control. These are 
directed toward attainment of the general ideal set 
down at the close of Chapter I. 

The subjects will be treated in the following pages 
in the order, roughly, of chronological development. 
There will be seen a gradual evolution in regard to 
the point of attack. The earhest regulation was di- 
rected at preventing adulteration; in the next stage the 
conditions under which it was produced and handled 
received most attention; recent developments have cen- 
tered about the sanitary quality of the product as de- 
termined by laboratory methods and about the specific 
treatment known as pasteurization. The development 
has not been, however, clearly defined, and the regula- 
tions of the present day are a mixture of the ideas of all 
the stages. The present-day task of sanitation is to 
assign to each of these ideas its proper weight. 

Early Developments 

We shall not here go into the history of milk regula- 
tion except as it has a direct bearing upon still surviving 
traditions. This, however, is by no means a negligible 
consideration, for in control of milk supphes, as in 

64 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 65 

other branches of sanitary endeavor, the inertia of tra- 
ditional ideas and routine has been great. To-day there 
may be seen the most advanced and promising ideas in 
operation side by side with the archaic — the latter still 
largely prevailing. 

To find the beginnings of milk supply control in 
the United States in anything resembling the modern 
sense, we must go back some twenty-five or thirty 
years. The following passage from a paper by Mr. 
H. W. Parker epitomizes those beginnings: — 

Most people think that the milk question is new in America, 
that it appeared not over twenty years ago, but really it 
began to make itself felt in the big cities at an earlier period. 
Thus, in 1859 the office of milk inspector was established in 
Boston; in 1870 the Board of Health of Providence investi- 
gated the milk supply of that city; and in 1871 the board 
of health of Washington looked into that of the Federal city. 
But in a sense the public is right, for the regular collection 
and analysis of milk samples did not become common in 
American cities until the period from 1885 to 1890.* It 
seems probable that about this time the family cow disap- 
peared and dairymen found it necessary to locate so far 
from their trade that they found it difficult to deliver milk 
in good condition and had lost personal contact with their 
customers.-^ 

The efforts at this time were very largely directed 
against watering, skimming, and other forms of adul- 
teration or sophistication, which were very common at 
the time. This work was certainly necessary, and still 

* Sedgwick and Batch elder's work, mentioned below, indicates, how- 
ever, that the beginnings of bacteriological control were somewhat 
later.— J. S. M. 



66 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

has a justified place in the supervision of milk supplies. 
But, owing to the work of the past, heavy penalties, 
and the ease with which adulteration and the use of 
preservatives can be detected, the period of extensive 
adulteration is over, and the matter is now one of little 
significance. It has always been, too, a question of 
fraud rather than of health.* 

The logical development of these early efforts at 
milk control was the adoption of chemical standards, 
which will be considered later. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CLEAN MILK 

MOVEMENT 

For many years milk supply reform was summed up 
in the movement for ^^ clean milk," which may be de- 
fined as milk from healthy cows, handled throughout 
under sanitary conditions to be obtained by means of 
inspection. Bacteriological examination became its 
indispensable gauge, and later there was added to the 
ideal the tuberculin test for dairy cows. Under the 
influence of the movement the dairy score card for in- 
spection developed. This was an ideal of fresh raw 
milk; hence many of its adherents, until recently at 
least, have minimized or opposed pasteurization, thus 
giving rise to a controversy, now largely adjusted to 
which we shall again allude under the latter head. 

Attention was drawn to milk as a vehicle of infec- 
tion, through a study, laid before the International 
Medical Congress of 1881 by Mr. Ernest Hart, sum- 

* Dr. Charles V. Chapin, in a recently devised scale of sanitary values 
totalling 100, assigns to milk adulteration a value of but 0.3. (See 
p. 61.) 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 67 

marizing sixty-nine epidemics which had aheady been 
charged to milk.^ The sanitary importance of con- 
tamination in general was later brought out strikingly 
by Sedgwick and Batchelder,^ who in 1892 published 
the results of a bacteriological examination of the 
Boston milk supply. This seems to have been the 
earliest recording of the bacterial content of the milk 
of an American city. The large numbers reported 
amazed sanitarians and public. The modern move- 
ment for sanitary milk on a bacteriological basis ap- 
pears to have dated from this time. 

Certified Milk ^ 

But even before this, important action was under 
way in New Jersey, where the State Medical Society, 
with the object of improving milk production, began, 
in 1889, an investigation of milk supplies, the result of 
which was an appeal to the State for strict supervision 
of all the dairies within its limits. This appeal failing, 
resort was had to an original expedient, that of medical 
certification of milk, and in 1893 the production of the 
first ^^ certified milk," under the supervision of a med- 
ical milk commission organized in Essex County, in 
that State, took place. 

Certified milk may be briefly defined as milk pro- 
duced under the strictest sanitary conditions by a pro- 
ducer who has entered into an agreement with a med- 
ical milk commission by which he stipulates compliance 
with the commission's requirements, while the com- 
mission authorizes the use of its certification.* In 

* The term "certified milk" has sometimes been abused by un- 
scrupulous dairymen, but has been legally protected in a number of 



68 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

effect, certified milk is the highest quahty of raw milk, 
from tuberculin-tested cows, the bacteria count being 
limited to 10,000 per cubic centimeter. The total 
production of certified milk is estimated at 25,000 
gallons daily; this, however, is but a drop in the bucket, 
for even in the large cities where certified milk is es- 
tablished it constitutes less than one per cent of the 
total milk supply. 

The certified milk idea was, until recent years, un- 
disputedly predominant in the clean milk movement 
and so has served its purpose. In the solution of the 
general milk problem, however, certified milk plays 
little part. Its market will continue to be restricted 
and its quantity small because of the high price at 
which it must be sold, and vice versa. This price aver-- 
ages 14 cents as against an average for ordinary market 
milk of about 8 cents. While some of the excess may 
be due to lack of business methods among producers, 
it is chiefly necessitated by the expense of special equip- 
ment and methods and by the small scale of production. 
It is, of course, true that if certified milk were more 
widely used, some elements in its cost — such as super- 
vision and distribution — would be cheapened, but the 
price must evidently always be decidedly higher than 
that of a widely used market milk. 

States. On the part of the medical milk commissions the object is 
simply to insure, through special encouragement, a clinically satis- 
factory class of milk. Over sixty commissions have been established, 
though nearly one-third of the number have become inactive. A 
general organization exists in the American Association of Medical 
Milk Commissions, which has formulated methods and standards for 
the production and distribution of certified milk. The producers have 
also organized themselves in an Association. 



__ 6 tc 

a ^ a 

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O H 

o 
o 




-M c -^ 
CO 13 o O 

O 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 69 

The general practical weakness of certified milk is 
that it demands multifarious precautions to obtain a 
result which, as we shall show later, appears to be 
obtainable by much simpler and less expensive means. 

It must also be remarked that medical milk com- 
missions have undertaken, through practical exigency, 
a function of supervision which properly pertains to 
the public health authorities. While they have served, 
and continue to serve, a useful purpose, it is a fact that, 
as official control becomes better and better developed, 
the value of such unofficial or quasi-official bodies 
diminishes toward the vanishing point. It is simply 
an evidence of deficient development in public health 
protection that in many communities certified milk 
is the only milk distinguished as a standardized class 
from the bulk of the market product, and that in many 
more others there is no milk at all of such definite char- 
acterization. 

While the highest ideal of clean milk has been at- 
tained in certified milk, which is therefore of a high 
degree of safety, it must be remembered that absolute 
freedom from possibility of infection is not guaranteed 
by this ideal. This, as we shall see later, is the general 
weakness of the clean milk ideal; no milk, even the 
most '^ clean," can be called perfectly safe that has not 
been pasteurized. 

THE GENERAL CLEAN MILK MOVEMENT 

Certified milk established a standard which has 
been the ideal of the whole clean milk movement. 
This movement, originated thus by unofficial endeavor 
and taken up by health authorities, sought to attain 



70 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

its aim primarily by means of inspection, the results 
being checked up by bacteriological examinations of 
the product. A later development was the tuberculin 
test, which will be discussed further on in this chapter. 
Many of those who held the clean milk ideal opposed 
pasteurization as an undesirable palliative and rehed 
on the above means for keeping infection out of milk 
so that the protective process of pasteurization would 
not be necessary. 

In practice this ideal has been well developed by 
Richmond, Va., Seattle, Wash., Portand, Ore., and 
Montclair, N. J., in which last community vigilant 
supervision of the milk supply was begun with a re- 
organization of the health department which took 
place shortly after the estabhshment, in the same 
State, of the first certified milk supply. That this 
reorganization came about as the reaction to a severe 
epidemic of typhoid fever is an indication of the kind 
of stimulus sometimes necessary to arouse a com- 
munity to sanitary reform. 

THE SCORE-CARD METHOD OF INSPECTION 

The development of dairy inspection and the ten- 
dency to standardize its methods led to the devising of 
the dairy score card, which deals with itemized condi- 
tions each of which is given a mathematical rating, the 
total number of points for a perfect dairy being 100.* 

* What appears to have been the earliest dairy score card was intro- 
duced and used by Dr. Wm. C. Woodward, Health Officer of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, in 1904. Since that time a number of different cards 
have been devised and put in use, and the idea has been extended to 
the rating of milk plants and stores handling milk and to other purposes. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 71 

The most representative of the various cards which 
have been devised is that adopted by the United States 
Department of Agriculture in concurrence with the 
National Association of Dairy Instructors and Investi- 
gators. The most important feature of this card is its 
separation and weighting of equipment and methods: 
to the former a total of 40 points is allotted; to the 
latter, 60. 

The score-card method has been commonly ac- 
cepted as the standard basis of inspection and record- 
ing, both for dairies and for milk plants. Dairy scores 
have come to be widely taken as indicating, at least 
approximately, the quality of milk produced under 
the given conditions and are frequently published as 
ratings of milk supplies. Score requirements have 
been generally incorporated in grading systems and, 
in one case at least (New York State), have been au- 
thorized as a sole basis of grading. The exact value of 
the score card demands, therefore, most careful con- 
sideration. 

The Dairy Score Card Under Criticism 

It is a curious fact that the score card has been so 
unconsciously accepted as a sanitary index that little 
attention has generally been paid to the question of 
the exact relation between dairy scores and bacteria 
counts.* Such study as has been devoted to the matter, 

* Throughout the following discussion it is assumed that the ordinary- 
bacteria count, properly performed according to standard methods, is 
a fairly accurate criterion of biological cleanliness. Discussion of the 
exact merits and present status of the count is beyond our present 
scope. See, however, paragraph c, p. 74, and notes on pp. 92, 94. 



72 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

however, has shown results highly destructive of pre- 
conception. An investigation of the bacterial count 
of the milk from 34 commercial dairies and their scores 
as determined by three representative cards — namely, 
the Cornell card, the United States ("Ofhcial") card 
referred to above, and the New York City card — has 
recently been published by the New York State Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, the investigator being 
James D. Brew.^ The purpose of this study was to 
determine how nearly different cards agreed when the 
same conditions were scored simultaneously by the 
same person and what relation existed between score 
and bacteria count as an index of sanitary quality. 
As might be expected, there was found some variation 
in the relative positions of the various dairies when 
scored simultaneously with all the cards. But the 
striking conclusion derived was this: — 

The results of the investigation show no correlation whatever 
between the quality of the milk so far as it could he determined 
by laboratory methods and the score as expressed by any one of 
these three cards. 

This is so arresting a result that we must quote fur- 
ther from the conclusions of the investigator: — 

Milk of all grades ranging from the finest quality to the 
poorest, is produced in barns which would be excluded on 
account of low scores. All grades of milk are likewise pro- 
duced in the high-scoring barns. 

The real explanation for this lack of relationship between 
the scores and the bacteria counts cannot be given as yet 
with absolute certainty. The most apparent reason, as 
shown by investigations made at this Station, is that a 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 73 

large number of the items included on the score card have 
little or no effect upon the number of bacteria present in the 
milk. In other words, too great emphasis is placed upon 
unessential factors in all of the score cards studied, with a 
consequent lessened emphasis upon the factors which ac- 
tually do affect the milk. 

Some may contend that these findings encourage the pro- 
duction of milk under filthy conditions. This contention 
will be raised only by those who hold the idea that low- 
scoring dairies are necessarily unsanitary and filthy. Such 
conditions have, however, not been found to hold true in the 
region studied because low-scoring dairies were found which 
vied in cleanliness with the most ideal of the high-scoring 
dairies. On the contrary, however, these facts give decided 
encouragement to the intelligent dairyman who finds that 
he can produce high-grade milk by the simple observation 
of the few essential factors of cleanliness and care. This 
places him in a position to secure a greater profit from his 
business while at the same time he has the moral satisfaction 
of knowing that he is selHng a high-grade article. Where 
the present score cards are used, all dairies, in order to get 
credit for Grade A milk,* are forced to an additional expense 
and consequently to an increased cost of production. At 
the same time a compliance with the score-card requirements 
carries with it no guarantee that the quality of milk will be 
improved or rendered more safe from the standpoint of 
public health. 

The fact that high-grade milk can be produced with simple 
equipment, likewise gives encouragement to the consumer 
who is as much interested in keeping down the cost of pro- 
ducing high-grade milk as is the producer. 

The above study deals with correlation in a general 
and unmathematical sense. A closer criticism of the 

* New York State. 



74 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

results would require their expression in exact statis- 
tical correlation figures. Such have been worked out 
from the original data and presented with inferences, 
which corroborate and supplement the original ones, 
by Dr. J. Arthur Harris.^ Dr. Harris's analysis, by 
means of the statistical figure known as the ^^correla- 
tion coefficient," leads to the following conclusions: — 

a. The correlation between the total scores assigned the 
same barns by the same inspector using the three most im- 
portant cards is only about three-quarters of its theoretical 
maximum value. The correlation between the scores for 
methods only is less than half its theoretical value. 

h. There is practically no correlation at all between the 
scores assigned the barns by dairy inspectors and the bac- 
terial content of the milk which they place upon the market. 

c. When correlations as low as those deduced from the 
present figures are found between the bacterial counts of 
morning and evening samples of milk from the same barns, 
it is clear that much remains to be done in the perfection 
of the technique of sampling and bacteriological analyses 
of milk. 

These data show how flimsy is the basis for the common 
belief that there is a relation between the score of a dairy and 
the quality of the milk produced by it, and how premature 
the official sanction for the grading of milk by means of dairy 
scores. 

The practical significance of such findings and earlier 
ones of others,^ taken in connection with the considera- 
tions which we shall next review, is that the present 
score cards are extremely inefficient instruments of 
sanitation. While Mr. Brew does not construe his 
results to disprove the value of the score card idea, he 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 75 

is constrained to say that '^present score cards cannot 
be satisfactorily used as means of grading milk accord- 
ing to quality." 

Going back for a moment to the origin of the present 
score cards, we find that, in the words of other investiga- 
tors along a related line (H. A. Harding * and others, 
also of the New York State Agricultural Experiment 
Station) : — 

When health officials, failing to find other means of char- 
acterizing sanitary milk, undertook to specify the conditions 
under which it should be produced they were confronted 
by an almost total lack of detailed information upon this 
subject. This lack arose from the fact that the available 
studies upon milk sanitation were in the nature of general 
surveys of the situation. While these general surveys were 
a necessary preliminary, they gave little information as to 
either the absolute or the relative importance of any given 
dairy operation. 

Later these official dairy regulations took the form of score 
cards. These cards not only selected certain operations as 
important but assigned to each of them a definite numerical 
value. 

This arbitrary selection of values in the absence of definite 
information upon the subject has frequently done injustice 
to the dairy business and can be justified only upon the 
ground of the urgent need of official action. The importance 
of the interests involved demands that the needed informa- 
tion shall be furnished as promptly as possible.^ 

Mr. Brew, also, says that ^Hhere is little hope of de- 
signing a score card which will accomplish this purpose 
[of grading milk according to quality] until all of the 

* Now of the University of Illinois. 



76 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

factors which are thought to affect the quahty of milk 
in any way have been carefully studied and the in- 
fluence of each determined and accurately measured. 
In this way the really important factors can be singled 
out and given the proper value on the score card." 

What these important factors are will be considered 
in the following section, after which the question of the 
feasibility of amending the score card will be taken up 
again. 

RATIONAL METHODS IN CLEAN MILK 
PRODUCTION 

The impression which has long been growing upon 
acute observers, that the production of clean milk is 
not the complicated matter that it has been supposed 
to be, is now scientifically confirmed. For a number 
of years some highly significant experiments have been 
carried on by Harding and others ^ * at the New York 
State Agricultural Experiment Station on the proposi- 
tion that 'Hhere is great opportunity for economy in 
sanitary milk production through the saving of useless 
labor.'' These experiments, conducted with reference 
to single dairy conditions and operations, show that 
certain of these, commonly thought influential, really 
exert little or no influence on the germ content of the 
milk. Following are some remarks from this study 
(italics inserted) : — 

* In actuality these experiments were antedated by those of Dr. 
North which resulted in his system described below (cf. Appendix C), 
but it seems logical to introduce them at this point on account of the 
general nature of the ideas brought out by them. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 77 

In public discussions of clean milk, the certified milk 
standard of 10,000 germs per c.c. is ordinarily taken as in- 
suring a milk which is above suspicion of uncleanliness. In 
obtaining milk which shall be safely below this 10,000 Kmit, 
it is the custom to expend much labor in washing the cows 
and in keeping the interior of the barn scrupulously clean. . . 

Those who have followed recent discussions of germ con- 
tent of city milk and particularly those who are familiar 
with the extreme precautions which are taken by many of 
the producers of certified milk will be struck by the small 
germ content which has characterized the milk obtained [by 
simple scientific methods] during these experiments . . . the 
large number of counts which are under 1,000 germs per 
c.c. . . . 

This milk was produced under general conditions which ap- 
pear to he no better than those surrounding a considerable num- 
ber of the ordinary city dairies, conditions which probably 
woujd not be acceptable to any certified milk commission. . . . 

The important fact which is being gradually recognized 
through these and similar observations is that the production 
of a reasonably clean and low-germ-content milk will be a far 
simpler and less expensive undertaking when the factors which 
really govern its production are actually understood. 

Some of the separate factors are dealt with in the 
conclusions as follows : — 

The cleanliness of the interior of the stable, within a fairly 
wide range, had no measurable effect upon the milk.* 

The protection of milk pails from accidental contamination 
after they had been thoroughly steamed had a measurable 
effect in reducing the germ content of the milk. 

* A recent number of the Journal of the American Medical Association 
(Sept. 2, 1916, p. 746) has an editorial entitled ''The relation of stable 
air to sanitary milk," asserting that aerial contamination in milking 
is negligible. 



78 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

When all of the utensils had been carefully steamed, cool- 
ing and straining the milk resulted in only a small increase 
in germ content even when this was done under what would 
ordinarily be considered as rather unfavorable conditions. 

By removing some of the misconception which has 
grown up as a result of the misplaced emphasis, by both 
certified milk rules and score cards, on dozens of minor 
details, such findings as those quoted in the foregoing 
pages clear the way for the acceptance of simplified 
methods of sanitary milk production. 

The North System 

The idea of rational simplification has taken con- 
crete form in the system of sanitary milk production 
devised by Dr. Charles E. North, a consulting sani- 
tarian of New York City. This system carries to a 
logical conclusion the emphasis upon methods as opposed 
to equipment; it centers around a few simple requirements 
which may he asked of any farmer, and, on the commercial 
side, compensates the farmer through a rational scale of 
payments. The application of the ideas exemplified by 
Dr. North^s practice should, on present showing, revolu- 
tionize the practical production of clean milk by mak- 
ing it possible for such milk to be profitably produced 
by ordinary farmers on ordinary farms without ex- 
pensive equipment and at a reasonable cost. 

The fundamental factors upon which this system is 
based have been simply stated by Dr. North. Eliminat- 
ing all non-essentials or matters of secondary impor- 
tance and including those only of primary importance 
and ^' which even alone are sufficient to produce under 
the conditions found in ordinary dairies a milk so clean 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 



79 



that it will have with great regularity a bacterial count 
of less than 10,000 bacteria per 
cc," the list is as follows: — 

1. Milking with clean, dry 
hands, into covered (i. e., small- 
mouth) pails from udders free 
from loose dirt;* 

2. Sterilization of pails, cans, 
strainers, etc., with boiling water; 

3. Cooling milk by submerging 
cans in tanks of spring water or ^^^ h.^^^^Tsmall- 

ice water. mouth Milking Pail 

To which are added as measures An important utensil in 




of control: — 

(a) The taking of samples at 
shipping stations for frequent 
bacterial tests (at least three times 
per week) ; 

(b) The payment, to the pro- 
ducers, of premiums (10c. or 20c. 
per 40-quart can for milk testing 
below the bacterial standards es- 
tablished, 25,000 to 10,000 per 
c.c.).io 



clean milk production. 
By its use the amount 
of bacteria-laden dust 
and dirt falling into the 
milk at time of milking 
may be reduced by as 
much as 90 per cent. 
There are a number of 
types of such pails. 
This one, used by 
farmers working under 
Dr. North's system, is 
provided with a cover 
to protect it after 
sterilization. 



The complete bacterial trans- 
formation, in five different localities under Dr. North's 
supervision, of large volumes of milk produced by many 

* It might perhaps be thought that the use of the milking machines 
which have been introduced in some localities would assist in obtaining 
a lov/-germ-content milk. Experience, however, has shown that the 
milking machine is apt not to be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized and 
may therefore add large numbers of bacteria to the milk. (Ruediger, 
Gustav F., Jour. Inf. Dis., vol. XIX, Oct., 1916.) 



80 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



dairy farms justifies the conclusion that the measures 
employed must be fundamental. A strong point of the 
system is that the farmer is asked to do only those few 
things which it is essential that he do, while other func- 
tions are centralized in a well-equipped country milk 
plant, which acts as a combined dairy house for all the 
farms.* 

Where such a plant is established the requirements for 
the farmer may be reduced to Nos. 1 and 3, steriliza- 

* The division of requirements as to equipment between farmer and 
station is shown by Dr. North as follows: — 



^^ Farm 



'1. Cows, healthy. 

2. Cows, tuberculin-tested. 

3. Cows, sound udders. 

4. Cows, not in calving period. 



5. Cow feed, no strong flavor. 

6. Cow feed, none unwholesome. 

7. Milkers, no contagious dis- 

ease. 



"Station 



"1. Water supply, pure. 

2. Dairy-house, superintendent. 

3. Dairy-house, employees. 

4. Dairy-house, white uniforms. 

5. Dairy-house, room for wash- 

ing. 

6. Dairy-house, room for steril- 

izing. 

7. Dairy-house, room for cool- 

ing, bottling. 

8. Dairy-house, laboratory. 



apparatus, 



apparatus, 



9. Dairy-house, 
steam. 

10. Dairy-house, 

power. 

11. Dairy-house, apparatus, 

washing, sterilizing. 
Dairy-house, apparatus, 

cooling, bottling. 
Dairy-house, apparatus, 

pails, cans, bottles. 
Dairy-house, ice, supply 



12 



13 



14 



abundant. 

"Those requirements relating to the general health of the cow must 
always be insisted upon, with the exception of tuberculin-testing. 
Clean milk can be produced from any kind of cows whether tuberculin- 
tested or not. I believe that tuberculin-testing is necessary only where 
milk is to be sold in a raw state." ("The Market Value of Cleanliness 
in Milk Production," address delivered at 36th Annual Convention, 
N. Y. State Dairymen's Association, 1912.) 




(a) 




Plate 2. Ordinary Dairy Stables in Which Clean Milk 

Is Produced 

(a) This is a dairy of fifty cows which consistently produces milk under 
10,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter and the milk from which received 
the first prize at the New York State Fair in 1915 with a higher score than 
ever given to any milk in that exhibition, including even certified milk. 
(Courtesy of Dr. C. E. North, North Public Health Bureau, New York 
City.) 

(&) A cow stable in Maryland in which milk is regularly produced with less 
than 10,000 bacteria per c.c. This barn is one in which horses are also 
stabled, and in which the light is very deficient and the floors of wood. 
(Courtesy of Dr. North.) 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 81 

tion of all utensils being performed at the plant. The 
contrast between the simplicity of this plan and the 
many requirements for certified milk, or even for good 
market milk under the score-card system, is striking. 

Clean milk, requiring more pains and being worth 
more than dirty milk, deserves a certain premium. The 
extra cost under the North system is roughly indicated 
by the following figures, from the plant which was es- 
tablished at Homer, New York, by the New York 
Dairy Demonstrating Company. ^^ 

Premiums paid to farmers: 

For tuberculin-tested cows J^c. per quart 

For ^'sanitation" (milking into covered pails 
washed and sterilized at the receiving sta- 
tion, and cooling with ice) J^c. " " 

For keeping bacteria count under 10,000 

per c.c 34c. " " 

Total Ic. 

(The payment plan also includes premiums for butter fat.) 

A typical monthly bill made out to one of the dairy- 
men supplying this station is as follows: — 

New York Dairy Demonstration Co., Homer, N. Y., to 

Mr. Blank, Dr. 

1912 

Dec. 1 To 4,500 qts. of milk at 43^c $191.25 

To premium butter fat 3.9% at 2c 9 . 00 

To tuberculin test at 3-8c 16.87 

To bacteria at J^c 11 . 25 

Total $228.37 



82 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

In this bill it is seen that if this dairyman had sold his milk 
to a shipping station buying regular market milk for New 
York, he would have received $191.25; but this bill shows 
that certain premiums are received by the dairyman of 
Homer, because he carries his milk to the Homer station. 
The fact that his cows were tuberculin-tested increased his 
check 116.87; the fact that his milk contained a bacteria 
count averaging less than 10,000 for the month brought him 
in $11.25. He also received a premium for richness, because 
his butter fat was above 3.7 per cent, which is the standard 
set by this station. ^^ 

The additional cost of running the station, over and 
above that of an ordinary bottling station, was He., 
so that the additional cost of supplying a tuberculin- 
tested milk with a bacteria count under 30,000 at time 
of delivery was one and one-half cents a quart, — an 
amount which certainly cannot be considered excessive.* 

Certified milk, owing to its requirements, which 
are out of reach of the rank and file of farmers, and its 
small volume of production, costs on the average 6 
cents more than ordinary market milk. But here is 
milk of the highest grade, at a moderate cost, requiring 
for its production only an ordinary stable and equipment, 
healthy cows properly cared for (tuberculin-tested if the 
milk is to be sold raw), healthy milkers, and the exercise 
of exceedingly simple sanitary precautions. 

(For further details the reader is referred to the 
fuller account of the North system in Appendix C, 
where a list of Dr. North's publications is also given.) 

* If a non-tuberculin-tested but pasteurized clean milk be desired, 
the extra cost would be, on this basis, not over one cent. Milk can be 
commercially pasteurized for Ic. or less per quart (see Appendix D). 



^ CO 



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THE SANITARY FACTORS 83 

Finally, the newer ideas on sanitary milk produc- 
tion — the insistence on effective method as opposed to 
observance of arbitrary, unessential requirements, — 
are steadily making their way into practice. Speaking 
of the fact that the conditions which are ordinarily ob- 
served by the dairy inspector bear no definite relation 
to the sanitary character of the milk itself, Dr. North 
says : — 

The production of "Grade A Milk'^ for the New York 
City market in several thousand barns of the ordinary type 
by the rank and file of dairy farmers, such milk in most cases 
conforming with standards for bacteria of 25,000, and even 
10,000, is a demonstration of this fact on a gigantic scale. ^^ 

AMENDMENT OF THE DAIRY SCORE CARD 

We may now return to the question whether, in 
view of the knowledge now at hand of the really essen- 
tial factors in clean milk production, the dairy score 
card can be satisfactorily amended. 

Efforts have from time to time been made to correct 
the inadequacy of score cards by assigning more weight 
to methods than to equipment and by assigning a 
greater value than previously to certain of the methods. 
Even so, Harris has shown from the study of Brew 
which has already been cited that the two cards which 
gave 60 per cent to methods differed distinctly more 
in estimation of methods than in that of equipment, 
and that even when the score for methods alone was 
considered there was no distinct correlation with the 
bacterial counts. This leads Dr. Harris to remark 
that ^'the lower correlation of the values assigned for 
methods as compared with those for equipment is 



84 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

perhaps the most serious criticism to be made of the 
score cards." 

The advocates of the score card beheve that it can 
be adjusted so that it may still be useful as a means 
of dairy instruction, of guidance to the inspector or 
demonstrator, of education of the dairy farmer, and 
even of rating. An invaluable paper dealing with this 
question has recently been published by Dr. North. ^^ 
After discussing the compositions of well-known score 
cards, Dr. North takes up the relations of different 
items or factors to the actual character of milk as 
shown by bacteria counts, concluding with a suggested 
new type of card, in which 90 per cent of the score 
relates to the three great considerations: milking ^ 
cooling, and sterilizing. A division of items is also made 
between primary and secondary equipment and pri- 
mary and secondary methods. This suggested card is, 
therefore, not merely a revision of present cards, but 
represents a radical change in arrangement and em- 
phasis. 

Dr. North's card, while not put forth as insusceptible 
of possible modification, undoubtedly approximates in 
its arithmetical degrees of emphasis the knowledge ex- 
isting to-day on the relative weights of the various 
sanitary items. It therefore affords a hopeful affirma- 
tive answer to the question as to whether the score 
card can be satisfactorily amended. Although con- 
taining a large number of items relating to secondary 
or non-essential matters, thus negativing the idea of 
an exhaustive yet simple card, it will give both inspec- 
tor and dairyman a very fair indication of the im- 
portance to be attached to the various points in milk 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 85 

production. The idea of scoring has become so well 
established and its effectiveness as a means of prac- 
tical procedure so well proven that the move to put 
it on a thoroughly accurate basis is well worth while. 
Some such schedule is evidently desirable to prevent 
inspection or dairy demonstration from becoming a 
matter of the inspector's personal opinion and to 
answer the farmer's question as to how he can best 
attain the demanded result of low bacteria counts. 
Even where sufficient bacteriological testing is not 
available, such a card will furnish a valuable guide to 
dairy inspection and operation, although the accurate 
grading of milks requires such testing. A practical 
application of a card of this new type in connection 
with bacteria counts would readily determine its ap- 
plicability and its degree of correlation with the bac- 
terial results. 

It must be borne in mind that the score card, useful 
as it may be, can give only approximate or probable 
indications. The ultimate criterion is the laboratory 
test. How, for example, shall we infer that a dairy- 
man actually does always use the sterilized small- 
mouth pail or that he milks and cools properly, except 
by results as shown by regularly favorable tests? His 
statement may or may not be dependable, but the test 
is a telltale.* The logical mode of control is the valua- 

* It is not here meant that the bacteriological laboratory can indicate 
the exact history of a milk or absolutely certify that the dairy methods 
are correct. Bacteria counts are subject to variations that are impossible 
to interpret without a knowledge of circumstances, and can only be 
taken as general summings-up. For this reason inspection can never 
be dispensed with, but must be considered as complementary to the 
laboratory. 



86 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

tion of milks according to laboratory tests, comple- 
mented by instruction of the dairyman in the simple 
methods by which he can keep his count down. The 
use of a rational score card would make such instruction 
definite and accurate, but his attention should be di- 
rected through the rating according to his equipment 
and stated methods to the desired final bacterial result. 
While the part that has been played by the dairy 
score card in the past in stimulating milk supervision 
is not to be underrated, it must be said that the forms 
of the card accepted hitherto represent a phase of 
development in which practical exigency required ac- 
tion on assumptions now seen to be faulty. Now that 
such assumptions may be corrected a reasonably ac- 
curate score card may be formulated which will be of 
decided service. With the use of such a card there are 
probably few farmers who would fail to practice the 
indicated methods if the sale of their milk depended 
upon results.* 

INFANT WELFARE STATIONS 

Contemporaneous with the clean milk movement was 
the development of infants' milk depots, or milk sta- 
tions, whose initial object was the dispensing, free or 
at cost, of a high-grade milk for infant feeding. The 
idea was the result of the conviction that the market 
milk of large cities was unfit for infant feeding, yet 
that the poor must have good milk at a low cost. 

* No discussion can be entered into here regarding score cards for 
milk plants. Similar considerations, however, apply to such plants 
in that they should be judged, not merely by equipment and visible 
operation, but chiefly by their bacterial efficiency. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 87 

The first institution of this kind in the United States 
was estabhshed at the Eastern Dispensary in New 
York, by Dr. Henry Kophk, in 1889. The estabhsh- 
ment of the important Straus milk depots was begun, 
in New York, in 1893, and have since had a great in- 
fluence in this field of endeavor. The Straus depots 
dispense milk of the highest grade, modified and pas- 
teurized at the depot. Similar work is also carried on 
by the New York Milk Committee, the Health De- 
partment, and other organizations in New York City. 
The first municipal milk station was established in 
Rochester, N. Y., in 1897. Infants' milk depots ha.ve 
been established, under either unofficial or municipal 
control, in all the larger cities of the United States and 
in many of the smaller ones.^^ 

Curiously enough, what was originally incidental to 
the infants' milk depot has become the chief function 
of the fully developed infant welfare station, — con- 
sultation and advice in the general hygiene of the in- 
fant. When the milk was modified it was found neces- 
sary to bring the baby to the depot for examination 
and prescription of the formula; hence the consulta- 
tion class. The distribution of milk has now become 
subordinate to the encouragement of maternal feeding 
and of the general hygiene of the child; and even when 
artificial feeding is necessary, instruction in the methods 
of feeding and, in many cases, of home modification of 
milk is as essential as the milk itself. Dr. S. Josephine 
Baker of the New York City Department of Health 
has given the opinion that ^Hhe solution of the problem 
of infant mortality is 20 per cent pure milk and 80 per 
cent training of the mothers." Prenatal instruction. 



88 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

consultation, and the encouragement of breast-feeding 
are now the chief Hues of the best milk-station work. 
In short, the doctor and the nurse, rather than milk 
supply (important as this is), are the chief force of the 
infant welfare station. 

Milk stations have served, and do serve, an impor- 
tant purpose in providing at cost or less a special grade 
of milk for infant feeding. Countless babies have 
thriven through the efforts of these agencies when safe 
market milk could not be obtained except at a pro- 
hibitive cost, and when a poor grade of '4oose" or 
store milk swarming with bacteria would often have 
been used. Such distribution of milk is not, however, 
a cure-all. Even in the districts where milk stations 
exist, many of the families most in need of good milk 
will rely on the ordinary market supplies. There are, 
moreover, the families of the middle classes, which 
may not get much better milk than the tenements, and 
which cannot afford certified milk, but which would 
not readily be drawn to milk stations even were they 
generally available. 

One of the chief objects of adequate milk control is to 
bring into the general market, at a moderate price, a 
recognized grade of milk suitable for infant feeding. Such 
milk could be sold both from wagons and from strictly 
supervised stores, — in the latter case, perhaps, at a 
lower price. The accomplishment of this will be the 
complete attainment of a general object which is now 
attained only partly — though in regard to the most 
pressing need — through milk stations. The latter, on 
the other hand, will be freer to exercise the larger, more 
important educational function of the modern infant 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 89 

welfare station. With reliable infants' milk well recog- 
nized in the market, station distribution and home 
pasteurization would be largely unnecessary; the en- 
ergies of the station nurses would then be concen- 
trated, so far as milk is concerned, on teaching the home 
care and preparation of milk, while station prepara- 
tion would still be possible if and where deemed neces- 
sary. It must be said, however, that at the present 
time milk stations are often the only thing that 
stands between the baby and the dangers of ordinary 
milk. 

LABORATORY TESTS AND STANDARDS 

7. CHEMICAL 

The earliest milk standards adopted were chemical. 
Such standards relate to the general composition of 
milk, and inasmuch as this in nature varies very con- 
siderably, there has been no exact agreement in the 
standards set by various authorities. The United 
States official standard may be taken as representative: 
this requires 12 per cent total solids, 8.5 per cent solids 
not fat, and 3.25 per cent fat. A standard of 9.25 per 
cent total solids is prescribed for skimmed milk. Stand- 
ards set by the various States and cities * vary some- 
what from the above and may even establish separate 
figures for winter and for summer. It must not be 
thought that milk which is barely ^^ standard" accord- 
ing to these figures is the ideal; they merely represent 

* The U. S. Department of Agriculture has recently issued a sum- 
mary of these. 



90 THE MODERN MILK PROBl^EM 

the minimum that the law allows.* Of the special 
figures, that for fat is subject to greater variation; the 
other solids are more constant. The fat percentage may 
be readily determined by the simple Babcock method. 

It is important to note that chemical composition is 
not a matter of sanitary quality hut of nutriment. Nor 
is it the only factor in nutrition, for the character of 
the milk as to digestibility and minute composition, 
also enters into the question. Thus milk from Holstein 
cows, though thinner in fat than that from Jerseys and 
Guernseys, is believed to be more digestible because 
the fat globules are smaller; hence it may actually yield 
readier nutriment, and physicians often give it the 
preference for infant feeding. 

That the proportion of fats and other components 
is not a sanitary but rather an economic question, does 
not, however, justify neglecting the consideration of 
chemical composition in attempting to solve the milk 
problem as a whole. It is certainly important to the 
consumer's pocketbook if not to his health that he get 
his money's worth in nutriment — that he pay accord- 
ing to the foodstuffs he is actually getting. Manufac- 
turers of butter, cheese, and other milk products cus- 
tomarily recognize this principle when they buy milk 
and cream on a butter-fat basis. With market milk, 
as with many other food products, it is simply a ques- 
tion of right labelling, to which we shall revert in a 
later chapter. 

Objection has been raised against legal standards 

* Distinction must be made between naturally substandard milk and 
milk adulterated by watering or skimming. Much heavier penalties 
are usually, and justly, prescribed for adulteration. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 91 

for composition, largely on account of the natural 
variations in milk from individual cows. (See Fig. 1, 
Chapter I.) Such cows not infrequently give milk 
which fails to comply with official minima. Small 
herds may sometimes give such milk. The objection 
has been strengthened by the failure of authorities 
to agree on any precise standard. Sometimes the 
standards have been altered in an attempt at adjust- 
ment. In New York State, for example, the dairy 
farmers came to produce so largely with cows bred for 
quantity but not for richness that the Legislature 
lowered the total solids requirement from 12 to 11.5 
per cent. Dealers may have to mix milks and creams 
so as to meet a standard to which all the milk bought 
by them does not attain. The tendency, especially in 
the case of the large supplies, is to bring all milks down 
to a level just above the legal minimum. Where the 
producer has a rich milk there is temptation to skim, or 
even to water when the authorities are not vigilant. 
It is obvious that such a levelling-down of milks is an 
artificially induced condition which operates to drive 
the richer milks from the retail market. This makes it 
more difficult for the consumer who desires the richer 
kinds to obtain them. 

In view of such considerations it has been proposed 
to abolish the legal standard and permit milks to be 
sold on their merits. This was suggested as long ago 
as 1907, by Mr. P. M. Harwood, Chief of the Massa- 
chusetts Dairy Bureau, in a paper entitled ^^Has the 
milk standard outlived its usefulness?" ^^ The com- 
mission on Milk Standards of the New York Milk 
Committee has now suggested the regulation of market 



92 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

milk on the basis of guaranteed percentage composition, 
as follows : — 

1. Sellers of milk should be permitted choice of one of 
two systems in handUng market milk. Milk can be sold, 
first, under the regular standard, or, second, under a guaran- 
teed statement of composition. 

2. Any normal milk may be sold if its per cent of fat is 
stated. In case the per cent of fat is not stated, the sale will 
be regarded as a violation unless the milk contains at least 
3.25 per cent of milk fat. 

3. As a further protection to consumers, it is desirable 
that when the guaranty system is used there be also a mini- 
mum guaranty of milk soUds not fat of not less than 8.5 
per cent. 

4. Dealers electing to sell milk under the guaranty system 
should be required to state conspicuously the guaranty on 
all containers in which such milk is handled by the dealer 
or delivered to the consumer. 

5. The sale of milk on a guaranty system should be by 
special permission obtained from some proper local au- 
thority.-^^ 

The application of this idea of fat markings will be 
reverted to in Chapter V. 

II. BACTERIOLOGICAL 

The total count of bacteria per cubic centimeter * has 
commonly been accepted as the most satisfactory single 
index of the sanitary quality of milk. This figure 
represents in sum the bacterial content resulting from 

* Attention has recently been called by Robert S. Breed {Science, 
Nov. 24, 1916) to the fact that the customary form of expression — • 
number of ''bacteria per cubic centimeter" — is incorrect inasmuch as 
"these counts are probably counts of groups of bacteria rather than of 




Plate 4. (a) Bacteria Plates 
High- and low-bacteria milks. The spots are bacterial colonies each of which 
has developed, in the jelly-like medium, from a bacterium or group of 
bacteria in a minute amount of the milk. Bacteria "counts" indicate the 
numbers of colonies developing from precisely measured quantities of 
milk, reduced to a basis of "bacteria per cubic centimeter." (Courtesy of 
the New York Milk Committee and Dr. Chas. E. North.) 




(6) Dirt Tests 
Dirt strained out of four kinds of milk by use of small cotton disks. The 
dirt is mostly manure and contains great numbers of bacteria. Such 
manure may contain the germs of bovine tuberculosis. This is a ready 
practical method of demonstrating the results of dirty or careless milking, 
though it cannot take the place of the far more searching tests of bac- 
teriology. (Bull. 361, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.) 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 93 

contamination and from later development of the con- 
taminating bacteria. The total count does not, how- 
ever, give any information as to the kind of bacteria 
present. Pathogenic organisms are not detected. Nor 
is it possible, by this test alone, to determine how far 
the count is due to contamination and how far to mul- 
tiplication of the bacteria through insufficient refrigera- 
tion. The count depends, as a rule, far more on such 
multiplication than on the initial contamination. Pas- 
teurization, moreover, destroys the value of the total 
count as an indicator of the previous state of the milk. 
The question may be asked, what means we have of 
determining the presence of contaminating matter or 
of disease germs in milk. The routine detection of 
specific disease germs in milk is impracticable because 
of difficulties of bacteriological technique, and their 
presence, even if detected, would not be known until 
after the milk had been distributed and consumed. 
The estimation of dirt or filth contamination is, how- 
ever, feasible. The tests for this purpose will be dis- 
cussed in the following section. 

Notwithstanding what has just been said, the total 
count, taken as a general index of contamination plus 

individual bacteria and . . . are probably always lower than they 
should be because of the fact that not all bacteria wiU grow on nutrient 
agar at the incubation temperature used." While this quaHfication is 
well recognized by bacteriologists, there is danger of its being neglected 
even by them. Microscopical studies are cited by Mr. Breed to indicate 
that the actual numbers of (living?) bacteria in market milk are from 
one and a haK to twenty-five or more times the number of colonies 
developing, depending on the kinds present. Until, however, some 
other form of statement is adopted, the number of "bacteria per c.c," 
i. e., of plate colonies, remains the practical basis of comparison of the 
general bacterial character of different samples of milk. 



94 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

bacterial fermentation or decomposition, has an ac- 
cepted value together with the merit of simplicity in 
routine milk examination.* 

Standards f for total count of bacteria have been 
adopted by many municipalities; in fact such a stand- 
ard — or rather, maximum for market milk — has been 
considered the necessary basis for administrative use 
of the counts. The first bacteriological standard in 
the United States was adopted by the New York City 
Board of Health, which in 1900 set a limit of 1,000,000 
bacteria per cubic centimeter, which, however, it was 
found at that time impossible to enforce. Boston 
adopted in 1905 a legal limit of 500,000, the figure 
which is still its standard for all market milk. The 
United States Public Health Service ^^ has ascertained 
the limits which have been established by some 150 
cities of 10,000 population or over. These range from 

* An important study of the technique of the bacteriological deter- 
mination of the total count, based on a co-operative test by four of the 
large laboratories in New York City, has recently been published. 
(Conn, H. W., "Standards for determining the purity of milk: the limit 
of error in bacteriological milk analyses," Reprint 295 from Public 
Health Reports, Aug. 13, 1915.) 

This paper finds defects in technique under present standard methods 
but concludes that these methods are sufficiently accurate to warrant 
the grades recommended by the Commission on Milk Standards (Ap- 
pendix B). In routine bacteriological milk analyses the Standard 
Methods of the American Public Health Association, as amended from 
time to time should be exactly followed. A new report by the Com- 
mittee on these methods was presented at the 1916 meeting of the 
Association and a revised edition of the Methods has been published. 

t This use of the term ''standard" is unfortunate in that it implies 
an average acceptable quality if not something better. Exactly stand- 
ard milk would, of course, be barely within the limit of the law and 
hence of the poorest salable quality. "Legal limit" is a better 
term. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 95 

100,000 to 500,000 for market milk in general, but a 
number have different requirements for raw and for 
pasteurized milk and, where grading has been adopted, 
for more than single grades of these. Some cities have 
established separate standards for summer and winter, 
on the principle that lower counts can be obtained in 
the colder months. 

Marked improvements have been brought about 
through bacterial standards even where rigid enforce- 
ment has not been obtained. In the large cities the 
number of bacteria in many supplies in the summer 
months has been so great that their reduction to below 
the standard was not to be accomplished at a stroke. 
In the smaller places the low germ-content has been 
more attainable. The town of Montclair, N. J., for 
instance, which has for years followed the clean milk 
ideal, has succeeded by vigorous measures in obtaining 
milk supplies of which 85 per cent of the samples run 
below 100,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter. 

For example of bacterial limits for different grades 
of milk, see the classification of milk, Appendix B. 

It is worthy of note that the Commission on Milk 
Standards appointed by the New York Milk Committee 
gave special consideration to bacterial standards and, 
with regard to its recommendations, reported : — 

The Commission believes that the adoption and enforce- 
ment of these bacterial standards will be more effective than 
any other one thing in improving the sanitary character of 
public milk supplies. The enforcement of these standards 
can be carried out only by the regular and frequent labora- 
tory examinations of milks for the numbers of bacteria they 
may contain. ^^ 



96 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

Microscopic Examination . 

Microscopic examination of milk for the determina- 
tion of pus and bacteria has been coming in recent years 
somewhat rapidly into use, but is not fully estabUshed 
as a standard method of estimating numbers of bac- 
teria. It is now under consideration by a special sub- 
committee of the National Commission on Milk Stand- 
ards and will be reported upon later.* The following 
comment, from the paper by Dr. Conn already re- 
ferred to, is meanwhile of interest: — 

The direct microscopical examination of milk smears by 
the Breed method will classify raw milk into grades A, B, 
and C with about the same accuracy and much more quickly 
than the plate method of bacteriological analysis will do. 
It is of no use in the study of pasteurized milk, however, 
since it discloses dead as well as living bacteria, no method of 
distinguishing between them having yet been perfected. 
It might be of value in telling whether such milk had be- 
come old before it was pasteurized, since such would show 
large numbers of dead bacteria by the microscopic method, 
though it might show small numbers by the plate method. 

The direct microscopical method of bacteriological analy- 
sis .. . may be of great aid to the large dealer to enable 
him to determine promptly whether he is purchasing milk 
of A, B, or C grade. The possibiUty of quick results and 

* It is, however, discussed in a recent provisional report of the Com- 
mittee on Standard Methods of Bacteriological Analysis of Milk, of 
the Laboratory Section of the American Public Health Association 
{Am. Jour. Public Health, Dec, 1916). While the method is not as 
yet recommended by the Committee as a standard method of estimat- 
ing numbers of bacteria, its value in rapidly dividing raw milk into 
grades and in detecting large numbers of streptococci is recognized. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 97 

ease of making the smears at the dairy or shipping station, 
subsequently sending them to the laboratory for microscopic 
examination, renders the method especially applicable at the 
dairy end of the line.^ 

///. CONTAMINATION TESTS 

We have already referred to the value of being able 
to determine the presence of dirt and filth, particularly 
manural pollution, in milk. Concerning the present 
status of tests for such contamination we cannot do 
better than to quote at some length from a paper of 
Dr. John Weinzirl: — 

This problem [of eliminating dirt from milk] resolves 
itself into two distinct phases: first, the problem of finding 
the most suitable method of detecting dirt in milk; secondly, 
bringing the evidence home to the dairyman and making him 
respond to the new demands. Let us first consider the 
methods of detecting filth in milk. 

Three methods are in use more or less commonly, viz.: 
(1) Determining the total number of bacteria present in 
the milk, assuming this to be an index of its cleanliness, and 
fixing a line beyond which the count may not go, otherwise 
sale is forbidden. (2) Determining the number of B. coli 
present and setting a similar standard. (3) Determining 
visible dirt, and again making a standard for purity. To 
these the writer now desires to add another, (4) Determining 
B. sporogenes and creating a standard of purity. 

It is well known that the total count depends upon other 
factors as well as upon dirt, for time and temperature may 
cause a high count in an otherwise clean milk; doubtless 
such milk should be barred from sale, but it does not reach 
the real question, which is, the amount of dirt present in it. 
Again, if the milk is pasteurized, the total count fails utterly 



98 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

to indicate dirt.* Since the use of pasteurized milk is rapidly 
increasing, the ultimate failure of the total count is obvious. 
As to determining the number of B. coli and using the data 
to indicate manure, this method will fail for the same reasons 
that the total count must fail. In addition, the determina- 
tion of B. coli requires rather too elaborate a technique to 
make it generally available. Up to the present time the 
method appears to have gained little favor. When the test 
is made sufficiently early and before the milk is pasteurized 
it has been shown f that the method is an excellent one for 
the purpose. The dairy in which the method was applied 
received its supply from a comparatively limited area and 
from only twenty dairymen. Special endeavors were made 
to produce only superior milk. 

At present the determination of visible dirt appears to be 
in greatest favor and has proven itself a valuable asset to the 
sanitarian in checking up supplies. The ease with which 
the determination is made and the tell-tale nature of the 
evidence presented speak highly in its favor. The Wizard 
Sediment Tester { has proved very satisfactory in our hands. 
Indeed the method leaves little to be desired so long as the 
producer does not become wise and adopt clarification 
methods such as heavier strainers or centrifugation. Ob- 
viously the method will fail as soon as better clarification 
methods are adopted. Such clarification cannot lessen the 
number of manurial bacteria in milk or the soluble portion 
of the manure, but rather aids in their better distribution. 
From these considerations it is quite clear that we have no 
method for determining manurial pollution which does not 
fail at some critical point. The total count and B. coli deter- 
minations fail in milk that has been held for some time or has 

* Except in that samples taken before pasteurization indicate general 
sanitary quality. — J. S. M. 

t Weinzirl, John, and Felder, H. A., unpublished data. 
X The Creamery Package Mfg. Co., Chicago, III. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 99 

been pasteurized, and the sediment test fails af er clarifica- 
tion. 

To overcome these difficulties is the purpose of the B. 
sporogenes determination as an indicator of manurial pollu- 
tion as proposed by Weinzirl and Veldee.* B. sporogenes 
is an intestinal organism, and hence indicates manure when 
found in milk; it does not multiply at ordinary temperature 
at which milk is held, and so it truly indicates the pollution 
even of milks kept for varying periods of time and at varying 
temperatures; it produces spores but these are not killed 
by pasteurization; and, finally, the organism can be easily 
and quickly determined.^^ 

Thus far most of the work of health authorities on 
the dirt question has been concerned with visible dirt 
as disclosed by the sediment tester.f (See Plate 4.) 
The method is simple and is effective for demonstra- 
tional purposes. Its weakness, on the other hand, has 
been pointed out above. The B. sporogenes test is 
already known in water bacteriology, and its develop- 
ment in relation to milk is to be viewed with interest. 

Dirt, or Sediment, Tests and Bacteria Counts. — To 
avoid possible confusion it is well to note that, as im- 
plied by Weinzirl and shown by recent experiments, ^^t 
the quantity of sediment or visible dirt caught on the 
disk by the straining tests is no criterion of the bacteria 
count of the milk. High-bacteria milks may by these 

* Am. Jour. Public Health, 1915, Vol. V, p. 862. 

t There are several varieties of these. The New York City Health 
Department requires the test to be applied in all creameries shipping 
milk to the city, and has established a standard for use in determining 
whether milk contains excessive dirt. (Regulations, March 30, 1915.) 

J In these experiments (in the U. S. Department of Agriculture) the 
Lorenz apparatus was found the most convenient and practical. 



100 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

tests be shown "good," and low-bacteria milks "bad." 
This may readily be understood, for the bacterial flora 
depends not merely upon the amount of dirt con- 
tamination but also — and much more largely — upon 
the kind of contamination, the age of the milk, and the 
temperature at which it has been kept. Hence the 
dirt tests can throw light on but one item in milk 
sanitation — viz., the amount of sediment in unstrained 
milk (previous straining or clarification practically 
destroying the value of the tests) — and are far from 
being a general criterion of the conditions of production 
and handling. 

THE TUBERCULIN TEST 

One of the noteworthy discoveries of modern sani- 
tary science is that bovine tuberculosis may be trans- 
mitted to human beings through the medium of cowl's 
milk.* At the same time a test — namely, the tuber- 
culin test t — has been perfected by which tuberculosis 
can be determined in that important class of cows which 
are infected yet show no physical symptoms. This 
adds to veterinary examination an exceedingly valu- 
able diagnostic agent. 

The tuberculin test appears to have been first re- 
quired, in addition to physical examination, by the 

* This matter, with some reference to the amount of human tuber- 
culosis of bovine origin, was touched upon in Chapter I. 

t The test consists essentially in the hypodermic injection of an 
emulsion of killed bovine tubercle bacilli (tuberculin). Animals in- 
fected with tuberculosis react by a marked rise in temperature. This 
reaction has been accepted in the courts, as well as in veterinary medi- 
cine, as a thoroughly reliable test of a very high degree of accuracy 
when competently applied. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 101 

Board of Health of Montclair, N. J., in 1907, which 
specified that the milk from reacting cows should be 
excluded from the local milk supply. The test was 
opposed by a large dairy company and the case was 
contested through the courts until a complete victory 
was won by the Board of Health. The decision has 
been supported in other cases, so that the legal status 
of the test is now secure. 

The amount of tuberculosis among cattle varies. Some 
idea of the relative numbers of reactors which may be 
found by the tuberculin test may be had from the ex- 
perience of Montclair when its ordinance went into 
effect in 1907:— 

Of the New Jersey cows that had not been previously 
tested, 25 per cent reacted. Many of the figures that are 
available on the subject . . . relate to suspected or picked 
herds, whereas the percentage of reactions above mentioned 
represents conditions of herds taken practically at random 
over a considerable area, with the exceptions that they had 
more than the average veterinary inspection, and that they 
had been stabled under good conditions. ^^ 

In individual herds as many as a half or even three- 
quarters of the animals may react. The suppression 
of bovine tuberculosis by scientific methods is, apart 
from milk sanitation, an important object of animal 
husbandry. 

In the elimination of tuberculosis from dairy herds 
a serious economic question arises. Drastic measures 
will result in a great diminution in the herds, a large 
financial loss to the dairymen, and a corresponding 
lessening in the milk supply with a resultant increase 



102 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

in the cost of the product. Ehmination has, on the 
other hand, been encouraged in some States by legal 
reimbursement of the owner for a large part of the loss 
due to the slaughter of tuberculous cattle. However 
the loss may be met, it is a real one and means, directly 
or indirectly, a higher cost of the milk. It is natural to 
expect that this increase in cost will be reflected in the 
retail price, perhaps to the extent of a half-cent a quart, 
though it may be partly met through payments out of 
public funds to the dairyman in consideration of his 
loss through slaughtered cattle. 

State regulation for the official testing and certifica- 
tion or condemnation of cattle obtains in certain States. 
It does not, however, even where adequate, advantage 
neighboring States, but tends to make them, unless 
their own or Federal regulation intervene, a dumping 
ground for condemned animals. Fraud, too, is possible 
in that a positive tuberculin reaction can be prevented 
by covertly injecting the animals with tuberculin shortly 
before test and thus passing off such '^plugged" cattle 
as sound. 

If milk is to be consumed raw, it can be adequately 
protected from bovine tuberculosis only by requiring 
the tuberculin test as well as the physical examination 
of cows. But fortunately, as will be shown directly, 
there is a practical alternative in the process of pas- 
teurization, which, moreover, saves the economic value 
of the cattle. 

PASTEURIZATION 

Thus far we have considered measures developed 
under the clean milk ideal; we now take up a remedy 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 103 

which, without dispensing from other precautions, 
cancels dangers which, practically, cannot be other- 
wise dealt with. 

In a general way the dangers of raw milk have long 
been recognized. The European domestic custom for 
centuries has been to heat milk before use, — the result of 
the experience that uncooked milk, like uncooked meat, 
was dangerous. This is still to a great extent the cus- 
tom, although since the time of Pasteur his method of 
heating milk only to a temperature sufficient to destroy 
the great majority of the germs present has been looked 
upon with increasing favor, principally because in this 
way the '^ cooked" flavor of boiled milk may be avoided. 
But in the United States that tradition did not hold, 
and the consumption of raw milk has been the rule: 
it has required scientific propaganda and official ac- 
tion to bring pasteurization up to its present level of 
favor. 

The term ^' pasteurization" has been used in a 
variety of meanings more or less approaching the 
original method of Pasteur. Through inaccuracy the 
process has not infrequently been misrepresented. It 
is essential that an exact scientific definition be recog- 
nized. Such a definition, applied to milk, has been 
framed by the Commission on Milk Standards * : — 

That pasteurization of milk should be between the limits 
of 140° F. and 155° F. At 140° F. the minimum exposure 
should be 20 minutes. For every degree above 140° F. the 

* The Commission on Milk Standards of the New York Milk Com- 
mittee is, in its personnel and scope, virtually a national commission, 
and is often so called. It will be referred to in these pages by its short 
title. 

\ 



104 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 




10' 50' /fO' 

Tl ME. IN MINUTE.5 



AND Temperature 
Pasteurization 



FOR 



time may be reduced 
by 1 minute. In no 
case should the ex- 
posure be for less than 
5 minutes. 

In order to allow a 
margin of safety under 
commercial conditions 
the commission rec- 
ommends that the 
minimum temperature 
during the period of 
holding should be 
made 145° F. and the 
holding time 30 min- 
utes. Pasteurizing in 
bulk when properly 
carried out has proven 
satisfactory, but pas- 
teurization in the final 
container is preferable. 

It is the sense of the 
commission that pas- 
teurization in the final 
container should be 

24 



Fig. 12. Time 
Milk 

It is to be noted that the pathogenic bac- 
teria are killed at temperatures and 
times below those at which the physical 
and chemical constituents of the milk 
are affected. The neutral zone between encouraged 
these two sets of phenomena permits 
considerable latitude in the choice of the 
pasteurization conditions. (Report of 
Commission on Milk Standards, N. Y. 
Milk Committee, 1913.) 

kill the vast majority 
of the bacteria in milk without actually sterilizing it. 
Among the organisms destroyed are those of typhoid 
fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, septic sore 



The effect of prop- 
er pasteurization, as 
above defined, is to 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 105 

throat — in fact, of all the common milk-borne diseases. 
Moreover, through the destruction of miscellaneous bac- 
teria and their toxins the milk is rendered a safer — often 
far safer — food for infants, young children, and invahds, 
with the result of a corresponding reduction in gastro- 
intestinal disorders and an increase in vital resistance 
to other diseases. A number of authorities might be 
cited on this point. Dr. W. H. Park concluded from 
researches which have been quoted in Chapter I that 
^'mother's milk is the best milk for a baby and pas- 
teurized milk is the next best." 

Proper pasteurization does not affect the flavor, odor, 
appearance, or cream line of milk, materially alter its 
chemical components, nor diminish its digestibility or 
nutritiousness. 

At the same time, the process is not a cure-all for milk 
evils and, as Rosenau remarks, should never be used as a 
redemption process for bad milk. Its proper use is, in 
the phrase of S. H. Ayers, not to try to make a dirty 
milk a clean milk, but to make a clean milk a safe milk. 

From the facts cited the following conclusions are 
to be drawn: — 

Proper pasteurization of milk supplies under official 
supervision (with safeguard of the pasteurized product) 
is the only absolute insurance against milk-home infection. 

Through the general bacterial reduction effected it renders 
the milk a safer — often afar safer— food for infant feeding. 

While it should not be taken to dispense from necessary 
supervision of supplies both before and after the process, 
it affords an insurance unattainable by inspection, medi- 
cal and veterinary examinations, and laboratory analysis 
alone, however searching these may be. 



106 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



RAW OR PASTEURIZED MILK 
WHICH IS THE SAFER? 

You insure your life against the time when accident 

or sickness may occur. 
You buy safe milk against the time when other mUk 

may spread disease. 
Because you have been fortunate in keeping well 

does not mean that you do not need safe milk 

right now. 
One man delivered milk for 30 years and his customers 

were safe until an epidemic of typhoid fever was 

traced to his supply and 295 of his customers 

were made sick and 10 died. He delivered raw 

milk. 
An epidemic of disease has never been traced to 

Perfectly Pasteurized Milk. 
— ■ — 's Milk is Perfectly Pasteurized and is 

Pure^- Clean — Safe. 
The cheapest form of life insurance for yourself and 

family — - — — 's Milk. 
— ''s method of Perfect Pasteurization does not 

change the taste of milk, nor alter its digesti- 
bility. It makes the milk Safe. 

Safeguard the health of vour family by using 
— 'S PERFECTLY PASTEURIZED MILK 



" It costs you no more than unsafe milk " 

A postal will bring one of our representatives to 
explain our methods and show you our plant in 
pictures. 

Visit Our Milk Depots 
Order of our drivers, write or telephone 



Fig. 13. Commercial Appeal on Sanitary Grounds 

This newspaper advertisement emphasizing the value of pas- 
teurization has a publicity power not attained by many 
health bulletins. 

In 1907, Health Commissioner Lederle of New York 
City took the position that practically universal pas- 
teurization must be insisted upon. In spite of con- 
servatism and prejudice, expert sentiment has steadily 
grown to favor this view. The consensus of the best 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 107 

opinion is reflected by the Commission on Milk Stand- 
ards, which has made the following unanimous recom- 
mendation : — 

Pasteurization is necessary for all milk at all times, ex- 
cepting Grade A, raw milk. The majority of the commis- 
sioners voted in favor of the pasteurization of all milk, in- 
cluding Grade A, raw milk.^^ * 

In view of the present status of the matter, it is 
scarcely necessary here to go into the details of the 
case for pasteurization, which have been abundantly 
set down elsewhere, ^^ nor to dwell on objections which 
have been disproved. 



ALL " " MILK 

is raised within 40 miles of the city, and does not 
leave our own care from the farm to your door. 

It is fresh, normal milk, not " pasteurized " scalded, 
or heated in any way. 

Cattle, barns, food and water constantly inspected 
by our own veterinary, and milk daily examined and 
tested by Professor — ■ — — — ■ of . 

It is a daily milk — Inspected, Bottled, Shipped, 
Delivered aild Guaranteed daily. 



Fig. 14. Commercial x'^ppeal on Sanitary Grounds 

This firm, a rival of the foregoing, argues on a decidedly 
different basis. This milk might be guaranteed clean and 
fresh, but not necessarily free from infection, as was shown 
by an extensive epidemic of septic sore throat traced to 
the supply. The firm afterwards adopted pasteurization. 

The matter of pasteurization is now one, not of theoretical 
debate, hut of practical application. 

Objections on dietetic grounds have been based upon 

* The Commission's recommendations as to grades (see Appendix B) 
make pasteurization of Grade A milk optional. 



108 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

unproved assumptions and unsatisfactory evidence. 
The recent reported increase of cases of mild scurvy 
or similar nutritional disease among infants in New 
York City as a result of the greater use of pasteurized 
milk cannot, even if fully substantiated, justly be used 
as an argument against the process, the remedy being 
merely a little orange juice, or other antiscorbutic, in the 
diet of the infant. To give over a great means of safety 
on account of a minor disadvantage would be absurd. 
Special medical requirements may, if necessary, be met 
by permitting the sale of the highest grade of raw 
milk, as is recommended by the Commission on Milk 
Standards. 

The pendulum of medical opinion appears now to be 
swinging in the direction of favoring even boiled milk. 
The scalding of milk as a domestic precaution previous 
to infant feeding and other uses has long been a com- 
mon practice in certain European countries, and the 
American prejudice against the practice seems now to 
be dying out in the absence of dependable evidence 
regarding scurvy and rickets supposedly caused by 
heated milk.^^ 

Other objections deal, not with the scientific process, 
but with possible abuses in its application; such objec- 
tions should properly be taken merely as cautions. 
Thus, it is true that pasteurization and repasteuriza- 
tion may be used by unscrupulous dealers as a cloak 
for bad milk, that milk may be sold for pasteurized 
which has not been adequately treated, that the adop- 
tion of pasteurization ordinances does not necessarily 
mean their proper enforcement. But these are all 
simply questions of supervision. It is, of course, neces- 




Plate 5. (a) Home Pasteurizer 
When reliable pasteurized milk cannot bs obtained, milk may be pasteurized 
in the home, for infant-feeding, by means of this apparatus, or even with 
ordinary kitchen utensils (see p. 109). A still readier means of safety is 
simply to heat the milk to boiling. Effective home heating ensures that 
no infection enter the household by medium of milk, and illustrates private 
prophylaxis as opposed to public prevention. The latter, however, affords 
general protection, while the private process, even when adopted, may be 
inefficiently performed. (Courtesy of the New York Milk Committee and 
Dr. Chas. E. North.) 




(6) Results of Clarification 
The two bottles on the left show sediment and slime removed from milk of 
cows with normal udders, by the clarifier. The two bottles on the right 
show sediment and slime removed by the clarifier from the milk of two 
cows with sore udders, which caused a septic sore throat outbreak of 
669 cases, with 14 deaths. (Courtesy of the New York Milk Committee 
and Dr. Chas. E. North.) 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 109 

sary not only to establish the proper definition of pas- 
teurization but also to exercise adequate control of the 
commercial process * and supervision of the product 
both before and after, and this will require more ex- 
tensive work than in the case of raw milk supplies. 
Such is the sum and substance of the opposition, once 
loud, now dying away, from uncompromising raw-milk 
advocates. 

Methods of Pasteurization 
Milk may be pasteurized in the home f or commer- 
cially. The latter way, under adequate supervision, 
is the more effective and economical. Various types of 
machinery for commercial pasteurization have been 
devised, of varying degrees of efficiency. ^^ What is 
called the ^' flash" method, by which the milk is kept 
heated for perhaps two minutes and then rapidly 
cooled, was formerly most in vogue, but has been super- 
seded to a large extent by the ^'holding" method, 
which is much more reliable. (Plates 8, 10.) In this 

* For specifications as to inspections, temperature records, and bac- 
teriological tests, see 3d Report of the Commission on Milk Standards. 

t The following practical method of home pasteurization of a one- 
quart bottle of milk is given in the Health News of the New York State 
Department of Health for September, 1916. It is stated that this 
process ensures thorough pasteurization without undesirable changes. 
(It is well, when possible, to check such methods by use of a ther- 
mometer.) 

" 1. Boiling 2}4 quarts of water in a large agate sauce-pan, or better 

"2. Boiling 2 quarts of water in a 10-pound tin lard pail, placing 
the slightly warmed bottle from ice chest in it, covering with a cloth 
and setting in a warm place. At the end of one hour the bottle of milk 
should be removed and chilled promptly. The water must be boiled in 
the container in which the -pasteurization is to be done." 

For a method of home pasteurization in infant's feeding bottles see 
Plate 5. 



110 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

process the milk is held at pasteurizing temperature 
for a longer time though at a lesser heat. Of the two 
methods only the latter complies with the definition 
which has been quoted. Even with this process there 
is a possibility that the milk may be contaminated 
through being run into unsterile containers, a danger 
which may be obviated by running the hot milk im- 
mediately into well-sterilized bottles or by pasteuriz- 
ing in the final container. ^^ (Plate 14.) This last 
method, which is considered ideal, is now being tried 
under commercial conditions. 

The proper care of pasteurized milk does not differ 
materially from that of raw milk, although there are 
biological reasons for taking somewhat greater care with 
the former. It has been shown, however, that properly 
pasteurized milk normally sours like raw milk; hence 
the supposed objection that pasteurization induces 
putrefaction does not hold. As Rosenau says, "the 
bugaboo that nature's danger signal is destroyed in 
pasteurized milk vanishes before the facts." 

General Pasteurization the Insurance against a General 

Danger 

The necessity for universal, or nearly universal, pas- 
teurization which is now being urged more and more 
emphatically by the highest authorities arises from the 
fact that even with the greatest practicable precautions 
unpasteurized public milk supplies cannot, in the light of 
experience, be considered free from a greater or less ele- 
ment of danger. 

Pasteurization is most obviously needed in the larger 




Plate 6. (a) Primitive Conditions in the Milk Industry 

While it is the dairyman, not the dairy, which counts, the man who conducts 
his business under these conditions is not hkely to pay much attention to 
essential sanitary methods in milking and handling milk. (Bull. 56, 
U. S. Hygienic Laboratory.) 




(6) Insanitation Plus Waste on the Farm 

Besides being contrary to decency and sanitation, this not uncommon condi- 
tion means the waste of much liquid manure, one of the most valuable 
assets of the farm. (26th Annual Report, Bureau of Animal Industry, 
U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.) 




Plate 7. Primitive Conditions in the Milk Industry 
Children entrusted with the important work of washing milk bottles, in a 
shed which is a mere apology for a dairy house. (Bull. 56, U. S. Hygienic 
Laboratory.) 




A milk house inviting dirt and rubbish and used as a repository for miscel- 
laneous objects. (Bull. 56, U. S. Hygienic Laboratory.) 




Plate 8. Advanced Conditions in the Milk Industry 

Complete Modern Milk Plant, showing: (a) Milk Clarifier, (b) Heating and 
Holding Tanks, (c) Milk Cooler (covered type), (d) Storage Tank for 
Cold Milk, (e) Bottle-filling and Capping Machine. This picture assem- 
bles units such as are shown on a larger scale in Plates 9-11. (Courtesy 
of Dr. Chas. E. North and the New York Milk Committee.) 




Oie JH 






^ ^ '-' CI S 
«7^ « S <u 
O t, 

o 



as 






.2 a oi+^A-' 



c3 



c3 O 



Is ^ 

I— I ^^ 

J?: 
o 



cS ^ O 

"^ a> ^H '^ 

Q ^ (B «*H 

•3 3^ O 

^ H q5" S 0^ o 

S ^bC-M MO 
> (V) g 02 

fer P 0^ 



q;P4 



(V 0) 
11^ 



03 . 



O 

U 

Q 
O 

J ^ o S " ryrr; 

C3-S.2 « 3 . 






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■» K r< Sh S f3 
w 3.S43 03 CJ 




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M 



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<5l 






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(5 fl o3 
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Plate 11. Advanced Conditions in the Milk Industry (continued) 

Cooling and Bottliyig. After pasteurization the milk is run over the Cooler, 
F, which reduces it within 10 seconds to a temperature of 38° F. A dust- 
less atmosphere is essential to the protection of milk which is run over 
open coolers. It is also necessary that all apparatus and piping with which 
milk comes in contact be capable of being thoroughly cleansed and ster- 
ilized. After cooling, the milk passes to a vat, G, provided with me-« 
chanical agitation, and thence to the rotary fillers H H, by which the 
bottles, previously sterilized, are mechanically filled and capped. This 
type of filler permits ready inspection of bottles. Employees medically 
examined weekly. (Courtesy of PI. P. Hood and Sons, Boston.) 




-xs 



O (-1 >5 



s >»v. 



o 

o 
Q 

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B 
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THE SANITARY FACTORS 111 

cities, where, fortunately, facilities in the shape of 
modern commercial milk plants are often found. In 
such centers it is rapidly gaining ground, and the bulk 
of the milk supply in certain cities is now pasteurized. 
Many large milk concerns have taken up the process 
as a means of self-protection against the possible con- 
sequences of unpasteurized milk. 

In smaller cities and towns, on the other hand, the 
need of pasteurization has been largely unrecognized 
and has not made the progress that conditions demand. 
It should be noted that the principles of grading rec- 
ommended by the National Commission on Milk 
Standards (Appendix B) — which allow for only one 
kind of unpasteurized milk, in the highest grade — are 
intended to apply to small as well as to large cities and 
towns.* Communities which do not choose or manage 
to adopt this standard suffer under greater or less dis- 
advantage or danger. Some of the smaller conmiuni- 
ties have, indeed, adopted the clean raw milk ideal. 
Montclair, N. J., and Palo Alto, Cal., — to name two 
widely separated towns — have under expert adminis- 
tration, carried that ideal to a high point. They have 
considered it their chief object to secure clean raw milk 
and to minimize its possible dangers. f But in both 
these cases it is to be observed that all market milk 

* The latest report of the National Commission on Milk Standards 
states that "for the use of small dealers in cities and small producers for 
towns and villages, efficient pasteurizers costing less than $200 are 
available. The Commission, therefore, thinks that milk ordinances for 
towns and villages, as well as for large cities, and also state milk laws, 
should provide compulsory pasteurization, except for Grade A raw 
milk." 

t Pasteurized milk is, however, provided for under the regulations 
of these towns. 



112 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

sold raw must meet the requirements which the Com- 
mission classification prescribes for the highest grade. 
The centralization of pasteurization, bottling, and dis- 
tribution at a few plants or a single plant in the smaller 
cities and towns would promote economy and simpUfy 
sanitary supervision. (See pages 171 and 250.) 

The value of pasteurization in making possible the 
use of milk from cows which would otherwise be ex- 
cluded by the tuberculin test is not sufficiently recog- 
nized. In the East pasteurization has gained a foot- 
hold which seems Hkely to be permanent. In other 
parts of the country, especially in the South and in 
the far West, agitation for the tuberculin-testing of 
dairy cows and opposition to the pasteurization of 
milk appear to be in full sway, and the conditions seem 
to be very similar to conditions in the East five and 
ten years ago. It is certain that in due time the South 
and West will come to realize the importance of pas- 
teurization and will give it the same prominence which 
it has already gained in the East. 

In brief, pasteurization is the most powerful single 
instrument that milk sanitation possesses to-day. Com- 
bined with adequate bacteriological control, it meets 
conditions which cannot be met by unsupplemented 
clean milk methods. Theorists may say that it should 
be unnecessary, but inexorable conditions leave no 
choice. 

In summing up the matter of pasteurization we can- 
not do better than quote the remarks of Professor 
William T. Sedgwick, in his presidential address before 
the American Public Health Association, on American 
achievements and failures in public health work: — 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 113 

We have as yet, and in spite of ample knowledge, failed 
to make our American milk supplies what they should be. 
This is partly because we have been too timid to insist that 
good milk not only costs more to make but is worth more and 
must therefore be paid for, and partly because we have not 
yet taught the public as we should that the only safe milk 
is cooked milk, and for infants, milk that is pasteurized — 
preferably in the final container. I have myself lived through 
the last year of the period — now happily remote — when no 
milk was pasteurized by anybody; through the next in which 
only pioneers like Nathan Straus preached or practiced pas- 
teurization, while many, if not most, physicians deprecated 
the practice; through the one following, in which the scales 
began to turn in favor of pasteurization; and into the present 
when almost no one fully informed on the subject actively 
opposes pasteurization. And yet, even to-day, some phy- 
sicians are shortsighted enough to tolerate if not to recom- 
mend the general use of raw milk, which still constitutes 
the great bulk of the milk used by infants and adults all 
over the land. Such use of raw milk we must count as long 
as it lasts one of our worst public health failures. ^"^ 

CLARIFICATION AND OTHER PROCESSES 
Ordinary farm milk contains more or less dirt, as well 
as natural waste from the udder of the cow, and often 
pus and bacteria from udder inflammations unnoticed 
or unnoticeable. By passing the milk through a centrif- 
ugal machine, or ^'clarifier,'' these matters are largely 
thrown out in a residuum which consists partly of sub- 
stances normally present in milk and partly of those 
which are adventitious or abnormal. ^^ (Plate 5.) The 
quantity of this is stated by North to be ordinarily 
about one pound to every six thousand quarts. The 
process has come into wide use in milk plants as a trade 



114 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

measure, to remove the visible dirt which would inter- 
fere with the sale of bottled milk. It has thus been 
used to a greater or less extent to take out dirt that 
should have been kept out. At the same time the 
process has safety and decency values and is worthy of 
favor when used in connection with proper supervision 
of supplies and methods. Its exact status, however, 
has not yet been settled, and present evidence does 
not warrant the requirement of general clarification, 
as has been proposed in some quarters. (For a summary 
of advantages and disadvantages see 3d Report of the 
National Commission on Milk Standards.) 

The scope of this volume does not permit mention 
of the various processes of milk adjustment and manipu- 
lation which are practiced in the industry or discus- 
sion of how far these may be legitimate or the reverse. 
A mechanical process which has come into some promi- 
nence in recent years is that of homogenization of milk 
or cream. ^^ In this process the fat globules are forcibly 
broken up so as to be in more intimate mixture with 
the liquid. The process makes possible also the ad- 
mixture of inferior fats. It is chiefly used in ice cream 
manufacture, but has other uses, among them being the 
production of an apparently greater richness in cream. 
There is no objection to homogenization in itself, but 
fraudulent practice is, of course, possible. The product 
should be fully labelled. 

PUBLICITY OF RATINGS 

The desire to more than maintain merely a minimum 
standard has led in many instances to the publication 
of the ratings of milk supplies. (The town of Mont- 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 115 

clair, N. J., was perhaps the earhest to adopt this 
method in order to secure the co-operation of its citizens 
in favoring the best milks.) Such ratings have been 
given out in reports, bulletins, and newspapers, in 
answer to inquiries, or posted publicly. Besides general 
observations, publication has been made, by name, of 
dairy scores, laboratory analyses, and verbal descrip- 
tions of the sources of supplies. 

Such publication is advantageous with the more 
inquiring citizens, but such value is largely limited to 
small communities where that class is numerous. Even 
the intelligent reader, moreover, may find it difficult to 
interpret columns of figures for different kinds of data, 
while the characterization of milks as ^^ excellent," 
^^good," ^^poor," etc., is but a makeshift for accurately 
defined grades. Where, however, official grades have 
been established, supplies may, if desired, be further 
rated according to bacteria test, etc., within the grades. 

The greatest effect of such publication is, after all, 
on the dealer. Even if only a few consumers read the 
list, the dealer is disturbed to find himself rated low and 
is stimulated to make some effort to improve his stand- 
ing. But this effect is obtained in much more efficient 
degree under the grading system, to which we shall 
give next consideration. 

CONTESTS, CONFERENCES, EXHIBITIONS 

Contests in which dairymen compete for prizes for 
the best milk have been held by Federal and various 
State authorities, usually in connection with confer- 
ences, exhibitions, and fairs. Such contests and the 
lectures and demonstrations which accompany them 



116 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

have been an important educational force with dairy- 
men and to a lesser degree with the public. It must be 
admitted, however, that they do not (nor are they 
intended) to go far toward the solution of the general 
milk problem; rather are they a useful auxiUary. Fair 
competition is to be encouraged, but can have full play 
only when degrees of merit are generally recognized in 
the market. 

THE GRADING OF MILKS 

We now come to the most recent and the logical de- 
velopment in the administrative control of milk sup- 
plies. 

There was a time when just two general kinds of 
milk were recognized — ^good, or salable, and bad, or 
unsalable. As the situation grew more complex, and 
bacteriological analysis came into use, it was seen 
that the matter was not so simple. It then appeared 
to those who made a special study of milk supplies, 
that, while the supplies in large cities might be made 
to comply with certain minimum legal requirements, 
few — perhaps none with certainty — could be relied 
upon as fit for the use of infants and invalids. It was 
recognized as impossible to bring the general supply 
up to this desired standard. Hence the introduction 
of the milk depot for supplying special milk to the 
babies of the poor and the devising of a special grade 
of milk — namely, certified milk — medically supervised,- 
for the babies of the well-to-do. Then, gradually, it 
came to be seen that these two special kinds — the one 
being on a philanthropic basis and the other costing a 
luxury price, could not solve the whole problem. Mean- 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 117 

while the situation had intensified; milk-borne disease 
became more and more insistent; a new factor had 
arisen in the shape of commercial pasteurization; the 
necessity of public control became more pressing. 
To-day the problem is how to exert such control in 
a way which is scientific, just to all parties concerned, 
equal to sanitary needs, yet economically practicable. 

Progressive sanitary authorities have recognized the 
fallacy of attempting to make all market milks conform 
to the same standard by lumping ogether raw and pas- 
teurized milks, milks for infant feeding and milks for 
ordinary household use. Distinctions must be made. 
The result has been the establishment of grades of milk 
publicly distinguished hy means of simple labelling. 

Such classification must logically be based on the 
uses to which milk is put and the corresponding sanitary 
criteria. The simplest division of uses is: (1) milk for 
infants, (2) milk for adults, (3) milk for cooking and 
manufacturing only. This requires three corresponding 
grades. The conspicuous criteria are bacteriological 
character and the application or non-application of 
pasteurization. It is essential that the grades be few, 
clearly defined, and readily understood. 

The idea of milk classification is not new. A rudi- 
ment of it exists in the setting-aside of the special grade 
of certified milk, which, however, has never played a 
quantitively important part in general milk supplies. 
Dr. Ernest Lederle, then Health Commissioner of New 
York City, advocated as long ago as 1907 the grading 
of milks in some such manner as has since been effected 
in that city. Dr. A. D. Melvin, Chief of the Bureau 
of Animal Industry, United States Department of 



118 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

Agriculture, proposed at about the same time a classi- 
fication (see below) which has done much to further 
the grading idea. Since then other systems have been 
devised. The principle is so rapidly gaining acceptance 
that the diversity of the different systems may become 
a problem in itself. As close conformity as possible to 
one generally accepted plan — e. g., that of the Com- 
mission on Milk Standards, cited below, would be de- 
sirable. 

Grading Systems 

The following, in outline, are some representative 
plans of classification. (For a fuller description of 
grading systems, see Appendix B.) 

1. United States Department of Agriculture. 

Class A. Certified milk or its equivalent. 

B. Inspected milk (raw, tuberculin-tested). 

C. Pasteurized milk. 

(This classification is interesting as being, apparently, 
the first attempt to devise sanitary grades. It was pro- 
posed by Dr. A. D. Melvin, in 1908. It does not, how- 
ever, express the ideas of to-day as do the following.) 

2. National Commission on Milk Standards {of the 
New York Milk Committee).'^ 

Grade A. Raw. 

Pasteurized. 

B. Pasteurized. 

C. Pasteurized (for cooking or manufac- 
turing purposes only). 

*This classification applies also to cream. 



THE SANITARY FACTORS 119 

3. New York City.'^ 

Grade A. Raw. 

Pasteurized. 

B. Pasteurized. 

C. Pasteurized (for cooking or manufac- 

turing purposes only) . 

4. New York State Sanitary Codej\ 

Grade A. Raw. 

Pasteurized. 

B. Raw. 
Pasteurized. 

C. Raw. 
Pasteurized. 

Some municipalities have partly recognized the 
grading idea through establishing standards for such 
milks as ^^ Inspected" { or ^^Pasteurized/' and the 
principle is being increasingly adopted in milk legisla- 
tion. There is nothing that would so quickly bring 
about the desired approximation to uniformity in 
methods of milk regulation as this principle. The 
grading idea has long been recognized in Continental 

* This classification applies also to cream. It is closely similar 
to the preceding, there being some difference in the exact require- 
ments. 

t This classification applies also to cream if labelled or otherwise 
designated for purposes of sale. Certified milk is specifically authorized 
as an extra class and the term protected. It will be observed that this 
is a much less strict classification than the others, on account of its 
admitting raw milk to all three grades. It is, however, noteworthy as 
being the first state system of grading, 

X The term ''inspected milk" has been used in various significations 
and is unsatisfactory. 



120 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

countries, though developed from a chemical rather 
than from a bacteriological point of view.* 

With the grading system the education of the dairy- 
man and of the consumer about which so much is said 
would come automatically. The one would learn ex- 
actly what is required of him; the other, exactly what 
he is getting. 

An important concomitant of the system is the 
tonic effect on administration. Health authorities 
would find themselves freed of ineffective routine and 
would at the same time have to make their methods of 
administration so thorough as to bring out the full 
effect of the plan. It scarcely need be said that grading 
required but not fully enforced would be a conspicuous 
failure and only discredit an excellent principle. 

* In Germany such classifications as: (1) Market milk, (2) Skim milk, 
(3) Infants' milk, are common. (Sommerfeld, "Handbuch der Milch- 
kunde." Cf. Rolet, ''Lait Hygienique.") We have already referred 
to the Continental practice of domestic heating of milk, which partly 
takes the place of official safeguards, though pasteurization is now ex- 
tensively practiced in Continental countries. In England, apparently, 
the grading idea has received little attention, and pasteurization of 
market milk has not made great headway. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 

Economic Value of Milk Production 

The economic value of milk as a food has already 
been made clear in preceding pages, and a glance at 
statistics presented elsewhere (Appendix A) will indi- 
cate the importance of milk production and distribu- 
tion as an industry of the very first magnitude. 

Quite aside from dairy specialization, milk produc- 
tion may be called an essential function of the ordinary 
farm. Dairying is an integral part of general farming. 
The dairy cow makes economical use of roughage and 
pasturage, and returns to the farmer milk for his own 
use as well as for sale. Furthermore the wastes of the 
cow stable have a large value as fertihzer. Dairying is 
often said to be the '^backbone" of agriculture. 

Again, the relative economy in milk production is 
much greater than in beef production. Good dairy 
cows produce human food in the form of milk far more 
economically than food products can be obtained in 
the form of beef, pork, or mutton. This is a fortunate 
fact for densely populated regions where intensive use 
must be made of agricultural resources. 

Decline of Dairying in Certain Regions 

But, in spite of this relative economy in milk produc- 
tion, there are regions where dairy farming is in turn 

121 



122 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

found comparatively unprofitable. A table given in 
Appendix A shows a striking decline in numbers of 
milch cows in certain States the while populations are 
steadily on the increase. These States are those of 
New England and the Middle Atlantic seaboard where 
cities large and small abound. While, through better 
breeding, there may be some increase in the produc- 
tivity of the milk stock, there is no doubt that the de- 
cline in milk production in these regions is very marked. 
The lower cost of milk production in more distant 
regions, makes it more economical for milk contractors 
to buy milk and pay the railroad charges from two or 
three hundred miles away, and many of the nearer 
farmers cannot meet the competition. This condition 
is hard on the latter and also adds greatly to the diffi- 
culties of milk sanitation, but it is a natural economic 
result of the growth of urban areas, their effect on the 
value of neighboring agricultural land, and their 
reaching-out, octopus-like, for ever-increasing milk 
supplies. 

THE CRUX OF THE ECONOMIC QUESTION 

While sanitarians and health officials have been 
agitating for the sanitary improvement of milk supplies, 
an insistent complaint has gone up on the part of the 
producer to this effect: that everything used in the pro- 
duction of milk has increased in cost during recent years, 
while the price of milk has failed to rise proportionately. 
Sometimes the assertion is even stronger, viz., that 
the price obtained by the farmer has remained sta- 
tionary or has even decreased. It is from the dairy 
farmer that this complaint comes with ever-increasing 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 123 

force; to him the additional trouble and expense of 
complying with sanitary regulations are the latest ag- 
gravating factor in the situation. 

Since the above statement seems to sum up the com- 
plaint of the producer, it must be examined in some 
detail, especially as it runs counter to the impression 
of many householders that the price of milk to the 
consumer has risen at a rapid rate and is partly respon- 
sible for the increased cost of living. 

THE PLIGHT OF THE FARMER 

In many regions the cry goes up from the dairy 
farmer that he is being ^^ forced out of business." It 
is asserted that many farmers to-day are producing 
milk at a loss and that many more are going through 
the processes of dairy farming with little or no return 
for their investment and labor. ^^It is claimed," says 
an official of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, 'Hhat only about one-third of the dairy cows in 
New York State are kept at a profit. If this is true of 
New York, it is probably true of many other States." ^ 
Testifying at a Federal hearing on milk rates, at Boston 
in 1916, Professor Frederick Rasmussen of the New 
Hampshire State College of Agriculture, is reported as 
asserting from computations that the ^^ average milk" 
in that State was produced at a slight loss.^ (This 
statement, though indefinite as reported, may ap- 
parently be taken to mean that more farmers produc- 
ing milk in New Hampshire do so at a loss than at a 
profit.) Several years ago a farmer, '^reported to be 
the most successful in New England, in a public address 
stated that the price received by him for milk during the 



124 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

past year gave him no profit whatever on his product, 
but brought him out just even. If this is true of the 
most successful farmer in New England, what is to be 
said of the great majority of the men engaged in milk 
production?" ^ Magazine articles have appeared under 
the titles, ^'The marketing of milk — how farmers are 
driven out of business and the cost of living is forced 
up" and ''How New England dairy farmers are driven 
out of business." * While such statements are usually 
couched in general terms, they are, coming from many 
quarters, significant. 

We have already, indeed, in Chapter II, referred to 
the plaint of the farmer, but it is so outstanding a 
feature of the milk situation to-day that a few further 
words here, before proceeding to its economic basis, 
will not be out of place. Some of the more specific 
complaints of the farmer are expressed in the following 
passage from the editorial column of a Southern news- 
paper : — 

The dairyman is a manufacturer of milk. His cows are 
his machines — and very delicate ones. They are liable to 
disease and death. At the best they will not produce milk 
the year around, probably only two-thirds or three-quarters 
of it. He must have enough of them to allow some of them 
to occasionally ''loaf on their job." If he has much of a 
herd he must keep a registered bull costing in the thousands, 
often. ... [A high-bred cow] will cost as much as $300 in 
her heiferhood, in many cases. . . . 

These machines and their product ahke require great care 
and attention to prevent them from becoming diseased 
themselves or being the means of diseasing the dairyman's 

* Current Opinion, November and December, 1915. 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 125 

customers. They must be tested for tuberculosis, and, if 
they develop it, he must kill them or have them killed. The 
milkman's stables have been proved, in some cases of careless 
dairymen, to be foci of disease, especially typhoid and con- 
sumption. Therefore, he must submit to sanitary regulation 
and examinations that the public may be assured of pure 
milk, for disease germs increase rapidly in milk. Where 
the product is not pure it is one of the most dangerous of 
foods, as pure milk is one of the best possible. 

Not only must his milk vessels be scrupulously clean, but 
there is considerable labor and expense involved in making 
absolutely clean the bottles in which he delivers the milk. 
He must be watchful . . . that his help may not be possible 
''typhoid carriers," or otherwise hable to pass disease germs 
into the milk from their hands . . . ; his cows must also 
be clean before they are milked. All this that his customers 
may have pure, clean, wholesome milk. 

All of this means a greater expense than was ever dreamed 
of by the milkman of old, who drove up to your door and 
ladled out a pint or a quart of milk from a big can into the 
can or kettle you presented to him for your daily serving. 
Yet we have given here only an incomplete skeleton of the 
modern dairyman's extraordinary expenses. 

His ordinary expenses are greater, because the cost of feed 
is so much higher than it was a score, or even a decade, of 
years ago. Nor will the health authorities allow him to keep 
his herd in such a cheap barn as that in which the 10-cents-a- 
quart* milkman often kept his cows-dark, ill-ventilated, 
perhaps rarely cleaned. 

He is not only entitled to some return on the capital in- 
vested in his milk-producing machines and his tools, but also 
to day wages as a workman. No matter how much help he 
may have, he must, if he would have his business thrive, 

* Milk is more expensive in the South than elsewhere.— J. S. M. 



126 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

begin his day's work at 2 o'clock in the morning or some 
other such heart-rending hour, to gather his product and 
start it off to his customers — for there is no middleman in 
the dairy business. Rising in the small hours of the morn- 
ing to begin work by lamplight, he sometimes knows no rest 
until some hours after darkness has come again. 

Yet his profits on the nutritious article of food he sells 
bear no comparison with those of the grocer, butcher or 
baker. 



To demand food that is entirely free from suspicion of 
carrjdng disease to ourselves and our children, and then to 
quarrel because we must pay more for it is utterly childish.^ 

The foregoing was prefaced with the statement that 
^^pure milk, clean milk, cannot be sold at the price of 
dirty milk,'' and was entitled ^'We must pay the cost." 

It is certainly worth examining how far the extra 
costs that are putting the farmer out of business are 
unavoidable and how far, therefore, ^'we/' the con- 
sumers, must pay them. 

7s the Farmer Getting a Fair Price? 

This burning question, which lies at the very root of 
the economic problem, has been well discussed in a 
paper by Mr. Ernest Kelly of the Dairy Division, 
United States Department of Agriculture, who writes 
as follows (italics inserted) : — 

Within the last few years there has been much dissatis- 
faction among both milk producers and consumers. The 
dairy farmers claim that they are not receiving enough for 
their milk, while consumers complain that they are forced to 
pay exorbitant prices for the same article. It is apparent 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 127 

to anyone who has looked below the surface of this question, 
that many dairy farmers to-day are not receiving a price for 
their milk which will yield a fair profit. ... In view of the 
increased cost of producing and handling milk and consider- 
ing its high food value, consumers in many cities are paying 
a price which is much too low to allow a reasonable profit to 
the producer. The dairyman receives at his shipping station 
from about 2 cents to 5 cents per quart for his milk, depend- 
ing upon the time of year and upon the city in which his 
product is marketed. Probably the bulk of market milk in 
this country is sold by the farmers at about S}4 cents per 
quart, whereas the price to the consumer in the various cities 
ranges from about 6 cents to 10 cents per quart, depending 
upon the locaKty and upon whether the milk is sold ''loose" 
or bottled. 

It is extremely douhtful if the dairyman in many cases re- 
ceived enough for his milk to pay for the bare cost of production 
at these prices. Bulletin 73, issued by the experiment station 
at Storrs, Conn., gives the cost of producing milk on the 
experimental farm for a period of five years. When the milk 
produced by the herd was figured as worth 4 cents a quart at 
the farm, the business was conducted at a loss every year out 
of the five. Where the milk was figured at 5 cents a quart at 
the farm, the books showed a net profit four years out of the 
five. Results similar to these have been obtained at several 
other stations.^ 

Mr. Kelly presents in his paper some exceedingly in- 
teresting figures which the present writer has elaborated 
and brought up to date and plotted in Figs. 15-20. A 
glance at these charts will show that the rise in the retail 
price of milk as compared with some other staple food 
products has been relatively slow. The figures upon 
which these curves are based were compiled by the 



128 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



Government from the most important industrial cities 
throughout the United States.^ The level of 100 shown 
in each chart is the base of the relative prices, — that 
is, the price indices relate to a value of 100 repre- 
senting the average price for each food during the 
period 1890-99, so that they give percentage variations 
and may be directly compared. In the last of the series 



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Fig. 15. Relative Retail Prices, 1890-1915 

Milk and Fresh Eggs 

a combined curve is given for the five staple foods as 
compared with milk. It will be seen that, with the 
exception of wheat flour, these have increased in price 
more rapidly than milk, and, taken all together, 
markedly. 

The economy of milk as a food has already been re- 
ferred to in Chapter I, but may here be re-emphasized. 
It was there pointed out that milk is ordinarily one 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 



129 



of the cheapest of foods, — a fact reinforced by the con- 
siderations that it is free from waste material, is easily 
digested, is indispensable for infants and children, and 
may be used either without preparation or in ready 
combination with other food materials. 



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Fig. 16. Relative Retail Prices, 1890-1915 

Milk and Potatoes 

We may now examine the complaint of the farmer 
that the cost of producing milk has increased greatly 
in recent years without a commensurate increase in the 
price of the product. Data on this point are set forth 
in Fig. 21. This shows the relative increases in the two 
great items of cost of farm labor and of cattle feeds, — 
items which constitute 80 to 85 per cent of the total 
farm cost of milk production. Labor for the dairy 



130 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



farm is hard to secure at any price, for many farm hands 
object to milking and will not hire out where they have 
to do this kind of work. In the chart the value 100, as 



180 



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Fig. 17. Relative Retail Prices, 1890-1915 
Milk and Round Steak 



before, represents the ten-year average of prices from 
1890 to 1899, inclusive. This chart is taken from a 
paper by Mr. Kelly on factors influencing the cost of 
milk to the consumer."^ Mr. Kelly describes the manner 
of constructing the dotted curve and draws conclusion 
from it as follows (italics inserted) : — 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 



131 



From the source already noted,* figures were compiled 
showing the increased cost of all the various staple grains 
which are used for cattle feeding, and also the increased 
cost of hay. These two sets of figures were combined, giving 



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Fig. 18. Relative Retail Prices, 1890-1915 
Milk and Bacon 

the two varieties of feeding stuffs (grain and hay), the im- 
portance which they would play in the feeding of an average 
dairy cow. From this combination of figures was plotted a 
curve called the ''feed curve." A separate curve was plotted 

* Bulls. 94, 99, U. S. Dept. of Commerce and Labor. 



132 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



for the increased cost of farm labor. Finally, these two 
curves, viz.: the feed curve and the labor curve, were com- 
bined into one, giving each of the two items the weight which 
would be attached to it in the maintenance of the average 
cow. The combination of the feed curve and the labor curve 
is represented by the dotted line. While this curve does not 
represent the total cost of milk production, it does represent 
about 83% of the total cost, and the other factors which go 



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Fig. 19. Relative Retail Prices, 1890-1915 
Milk and Wheat Flour 



to make up the other 17% have probably increased in at 
least as rapid a ratio. 

After studying this curve there can be no doubt that the aver- 
age milk consumer is paying much less for milk than is war- 
ranted by the increased cost of production, to say nothing of the 
increased cost due to the more elaborate system, of distribution 
now in force. 

Finally, Mr. Kelly draws the following general 
conclusion : — 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 



133 



The consumer is already buying his milk at a low price as 
compared with many other foods, and if he wishes a clean milk 
he must expect to pay more in the future than he does at present j 



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Fig. 20. Relative Retail Prices, 1890-1915 
Milk and Five Staple Foods 

unless a more economical method of production and distribution 
can be installed. 

Another Aspect 

Such considerations strongly support the case of the 
farmer. Still, they require some qualification. The 
matter has another side which we have not yet con- 
sidered. It is well put by Mr. Kelly (itaUcs inserted) : — 

The dairy farmer himself is not blameless. Sometimes his 
business is carried on in a wasteful, extravagant manner. 
Unprofitable cows are kept, and uneconomical methods of 



134 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



feeding are followed. It is unfair to ask the milk-consuming 
public to pay him a profit on such a slipshod system, and 
yet that is what is often expected.^ 

This widespread condition of agricultural and busi- 
ness inefficiency is fostered by the fact that a great 



170 



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1900-04 



1906-09 1910-U 



1890-94 1895-99 

Fig. 21. Retail Price of Milk Compared with Costs op 
Production 

Five-year periods, 1890-1911. 

deal — perhaps the bulk — of market milk comes from 
small farms where it is regarded simply as a by-product. 
The farmer keeps a few cows for his personal use and 
sells the excess product. He gives the subject of milk 
production just as little attention as he can. The state 
of affairs is described in further detail by another Gov- 
ernment agricultural expert : — 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 
'$90.69 



135 



$68.55 



$50.72 



$2972 



$24.82 



$3.82 
■ 



Total TaJoe of pniduct 



Valoe 3f DFoductt 



Fig. 22. Profit from Different Cows 
Average annual value of product from two cows for three years. 
Observe the scant net profit on Cow No. 2, compared with No. 1, as 
shown by the two bars at the right. The values of his cows as pro- 
ducers are of the utmost importance to the dairy farmer, yet few 
farmers have any exact knowledge as to which cows in the herd are 
bringing in a profit in relation to the cost of their keep and which 
ones are kept at a loss as ''boarders" or "rabbits." Yet such 
knowledge can be gained simply by keeping records for individual 
cows and, when possible, making butter-fat tests. Such differences 
as the above are very common in dairy herds, and greater ones are 
often met with, — facts which must be considered in connection with 
the complaint from the farmer that "there is no money in the milk 
business." (Circulars 67, 122, Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station.) 

As I visit the dairymen of this country, I am impressed 
with the statements that they make in regard to the amount 
of milk received per cow. Some dairymen say their cows are 



136 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

averaging about one gallon each, while others say theirs 
give three. Why this difference? There are several things 
that might assist in this condition of affairs, yet I believe it 
is principally accounted for by the difference in cows. A 
profitable cow costs little more to keep than an unprofitable 
one; yet farmer after farmer is keeping these scrub cows. It 
is also a question of the dairyman not really knowing which 
are his profitable cows and which the ^'boarders." Too 
many think they have no time for the Babcock test and the 
scales. If dairymen are to produce milk on an economical 
basis, they must start with better cows. Then they must 
properly care for and feed these cows if best results are to 
be obtained. Successful dairymen are using silos, growing 
alfalfa, etc.; therefore other farmers should study these 
matters. 

Again, as one travels over this country, he cannot help 
being impressed with the many kinds of waste that are con- 
tinually occurring on our farms. The farm machinery that 
should last a number of years is allowed to deteriorate rapidly 
because it is not properly housed and cared for. One of the 
most valuable assets to the farm, namely, the liquid manure, 
is allowed to waste by soaking into the ground near the barn. 
Even the solid manure is thrown under the eaves, and the 
soluble elements, which are the best form of plant food, are 
allowed to be lost. So we might mention loss after loss that 
is continually occurring on our farms, mainly because of poor 
management. I can hardly see how the dairjnuan can ex- 
pect the consumer to pay for such losses; yet that is really 
what he wants when he allows these conditions to exist, and 
cries for better prices.^ 

From this it is clear that, while justice must be done 
to the farmer in a fair price for his product, he must,; 
if he is to stay in business, use business methods. Not 
that he can be expected to become an agricultural oi* 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 137 

business expert, but he should certainly take advantage 
of the expert information and advice now available to 
him. One great drawback is most farmers' apparent 
inability to make use of printed matter. Federal, 
state, and college authorities are continually publishing 
literature that should be in the hands of milk producers, 
yet it is surprising how few avail themselves of this 
free information as well as that contained in dairy 
periodicals. There are indeed hopeful signs in the 
increasing attention being paid to high-grade stock, to 
cow-testing for the purpose of weeding out animals 
which are kept at a loss, and to other points of man- 
agement. But it is evident that a great deal of agricul- 
tural extension work — to take knowledge personally to 
the farmer — ^will be needed to bring about the requisite 
improvement in dairy husbandry. 

There has naturally come about considerable spe- 
cialization of dairy farms. The larger these are and the 
more closely organized and managed, the greater will 
be the profit. This development has suggested that 
the small dairy farmer may eventually be crowded out 
of business. How far this may come to pass is hard to 
tell, but the economic function of the dairy cow on the 
ordinary farm indicates that we must still continue to 
depend upon the ordinary farmer for a large share of 
the milk supply. So far as sanitation goes, by the 
simple methods outlined in Chapter III sanitary milk 
can be produced, at a moderate cost, on almost any 
kind of farm by ordinary dairymen. 

A certain number of all businesses fail, and one can- 
not hope that every last dairyman can be made suc- 
cessful. But standards can certainly be raised. And 



138 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

it is to be hoped that not only will justice be done 
to the farmer, but also that he will make use of 
the means of his own advancement, thereby bene- 
fiting simultaneously the consuming public and him- 
self. 

FACTORS IN THE FINAL COST OF MILK 

The various factors which make up the total cost of a 
unit of milk may logically be considered under the 
following heads: (1) Production, (2) Transportation, 
(3) Handling in country or city milk plant, and (4) De- 
livery to the consumer. A detailed consideration of 
these would split them up into a number of items to 
be figured separately. Thus, for production, which 
includes all that is chargeable to the farmer, the sub- 
heads would be: interest on investment; insurance, 
taxes, etc.; cost of feed; labor cost; miscellaneous 
charges; and hauling to the station or milk plant when 
the farmer does not retail his own product.* 

A number of special studies dealing with the costs of 
the various processes and stages have been made, some 
of the findings of which are gathered together in Ap- 
pendix D. In considering cost figures it must be re- 
membered that very few dairy farmers keep even 
approximately accurate records, so that at the present 
time it is impossible to get data of this kind except 
by means of special investigation; and also that, on 
account of trade reticence, it is difficult to obtain in- 

* Further details on figuring milk costs are given in the paper by 
Kelly already referred to and in the various special studies cited in 
Appendix D. 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 139 

dicative figures from dealers, although the large com- 
panies of course figure carefully their own particular 
items. Data on production costs have been gathered 
by various experiment stations, and show considerable 
differences according to locality. 

Systems and rates of transportation as complica- 
ting factors have elsewhere been referred to (Chap- 
ter II). 

The cost of distribution has come in for special at- 
tention. A large proportion of the total cost of milk 
is chargeable to this item. The Boston Chamber of 
Commerce investigation showed that ^Hhe greatest 
single item of cost is delivery to the family trade, 
equaling the total cost of collection in the country, the 
operation of country plant, railroad transportation, 
and city plant expenses." In some cases it approaches 
the price paid to the producer. A notable study of the 
distribution situation in one city, Rochester, N. Y., 
has been made by Dr. John R. Williams, ^^ who esti- 
mated the difference in cost between an assumed model 
system of distribution and the system actually exist- 
ing among the distributers.* This difference was sur- 
prisingly large, the extra cost due to the duphcation of 
routes and dispersion of customers under trade condi- 
tions figuring to some $500,000 yearly for that city. 
Bottle losses were also a very considerable item, esti- 
mated at about $10,000 a year. Such charges are, of 
course, paid by the consumer in the retail price. Dr. 
Williams presents statistical details from investigation 

* The U. S. Department of Agriculture has collected figures showing 
large variation in the economy of distribution as practiced by different 
dealers. (Milk Plant Letter 15.) 



140 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

and experiment, and concludes with a plea for cen- 
tral delivery under municipal management of milk 
supplies. 

Various practical objections have been brought 
against the idea of a central delivery, either privately 
or municipally managed. A number of such objections 
were collected by the Boston Chamber of Commerce 
committee. ^^ The idea has apparently not been tried 
in practice. As a trade measure such centralization 
would necessitate the actual formation of companies 
large enough to undertake all the operations connected 
with large volumes of milk, for delivery is so vital and 
competitive a part of local milk trade that it is difficult 
to see how mere co-operation could be made to harmo- 
nize with individual interests. Otherwise the indi- 
vidual dealer would be left so limited scope for initiative 
and activity in competition that general discontent 
would be inevitable, and either complete amalgamation 
or the restoration of previous conditions would be a 
forced conclusion. Co-operative plans and municipaliz- 
ation will be further discussed in Chapter V. A general 
criticism of such proposals is that they minimize or 
omit practical difficulties and dangers in organization 
and operation. 

The tendency of the trade in the cities to become 
concentrated in the hands of comparatively few dealers 
or companies is a hopeful factor in the delivery situa- 
tion. It is clear that such concentration favors greater 
efficiency and economy in handling in all respects. It 
may be added that the sale of milk from properly 
supervised stores is another means of lowering the cost 
of distribution. 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 141 

THE MILK DEALER 

In what may be called the semi-developed state of 
milk industry the farmer produces and distributes his 
own product, perhaps deriving a greater or less part 
of his supply from his neighbors. In the developed 
state the milk dealer is differentiated as a distinct in- 
dividual. The dealer collects the milk brought in by 
producers, either at a country botthng plant or, more 
frequently, at a city plant to which the separate sup- 
pHes have been brought, usually by railroad. The 
dealer thus specialized is not only able to carry on 
milk processes on a large scale, but also can dispose of 
surplus milk through the channels of the manufacture 
of butter, cheese, etc. (Establishments for these last 
uses are called ^^ creameries," a term sometimes loosely 
applied to milk depots or milk plants proper.) Urban 
conditions not only make it difficult or impossible for 
the farmer to distribute his product himself, but further 
tend to force the small dealer either to go out of business 
or to amalgamate with others in the formation of 
businesses of economic size, — hence the large dealer 
of to-day. 

The dealer thus occupies a central point from which 
he can see, and to a certain degree control, all the 
ramifications of the industry. But, while he possesses 
an advantage in being more of a business man than 
is the farmer, and may use this advantage unscru- 
pulously, his position is not always an easy one. Often, 
as Dr. Charles E. North wrote several years ago, ''he 
finds himself opposed on the one hand to the public 
health authorities in the city where he markets his 



142 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

product and, on the other hand, he is opposed by the 
milk producers from whom he secures his raw materiaL 
In some districts these antagonisms have become so 
acute that the large dealer has a tendency to believe 
he must look upon the dairy farmers who produce milk 
and the health authorities who supervise the industry 
as permanent enemies of the milk business." Obviously, 
the remedy for this is mutual understanding, fair 
deaHng, and the adjustment of aggravating conditions. 

Dealer and Farmer 

The general situation between dealer and farmer has 
already been considered in Chapter II and need not be 
further discussed here. Projects to ehminate the mid- 
dlieman, wholly or partly, as a supposed special ob- 
stacle to the solution of the milk problem, have been 
offered, the merits of which will be discussed in Chap- 
ter V. We may consider for the present the concrete, 
practical plan of farmers^ co-operative milk depots in 
country districts. One of the principal recommenda- 
tions of the Boston Chamber of Commerce committee 
of investigation into conditions in New England * 
dealt with this idea as follows: — 

A plant, [reported the committee] well built and equipped 
would cost from $2,000 to $20,000, according to its capacity 
and the number of operations carried on. The plant could 
be owned by the farmers and business men of the locality. 
Money could be raised by the issuing of non-voting preferred 
shares to the business men and investors locally, and voting 
common share to the farmers. 

* See Appendix E. 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 143 

The producers would then have faciHties for the disposal 
of their product in the manufacturing of butter or cheese, 
if they are unable to secure satisfactory prices from the 
dealers. 

Producers may look forward to receiving more from their 
product when they cease to allow others to furnish them 
their cans, to collect (taking all grades, little or much), to 
dictate price and to process, grade and market their milk and 
cream. 



Co-operative creameries have failed in the past largely 
because of inefficient management (a poor bookkeeping sys- 
tem, no allowance for depreciation, no allowance for surplus, 
no safeguard preventing one or two persons from gaining 
control of the company, and the lack of knowledge of new 
methods of testing, manufacturing and marketing). 

A milk plant is important to the prosperity of the com- 
munity. A certain small plant, not well equipped or man- 
aged, in one of our New England localities, paid the farmers 
last year nearly $100,000, which brought as much money 
into the community as many manufacturing establishments 
employing one hundred and fifty to two hundred men each. 

If, as this committee reported, "sit present the 
general farmer has very little voice in determining the 
price to be paid for his milk and cream," and ''takes 
what the dealer offers, which is generally the price for 
no special grade of product and is influenced largely by 
the yearly surplus," and is otherwise at a disadvan- 
tage, — then this proposal of co-operative plants is one 
seriously to be considered. (For further details see the 
report of the committee. ^2) 



144 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

The care of surplus milk in the country was con- 
sidered by the conunittee just quoted to be a very 
important matter: — 

In addition to producing good, clean milk and cream and 
grading it, the producers, to assure themselves of greater 
returns for their product, would do well to process it and to 
make arrangements to care for the surplus. Too much em- 
phasis cannot be laid upon the taking care, in the country, 
of the surplus; manufacturing it into butter, skim milk or 
cheese. As pointed out previously, this surplus item is one 
of the most serious causes for the present chaotic condition in 
the industry. 

The above plan, it will be seen, proposes for the coun- 
try a concentration at the farmer's end and for his ad- 
vantage similar to that which now exists at the dealer's 
end in cities. 

Many large dealers buy milk on a sliding scale which 
varies the price both according to month and according 
to percentage of butter fat. For years past farmers 
have been breeding cattle for quantity, not quality. 
The result has been a great increase in numbers of 
cows, such as Holsteins, which yield milk in large quan- 
tity but with a low butter-fat test. In- the case of New 
York State the Legislature was induced to take account 
of this situation and lowered the legal minimum of 
total solids. In order to secure a sufficient percentage 
of cream the sliding scale of prices according to fat 
was adopted by dealers. This is obviously a fair way 
of buying milk, for it makes the distinction between, 
say, Jersey and Holstein cows and between high-test 
and low-test Holsteins. 

Certain large dealers have also established premiums 






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THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 145 

for milk of better sanitary quality. A noteworthy ex- 
ample of this idea is the payment for low bacteria counts 
which is made under the North plan of milk produc- 
tion (page 78). 

Such differential payments for milk are all in the 
right direction as recognizing the commercial value of 
quality and should be complemented by differential 
prices for the retail product. 

For the purpose of avoiding uncertainty dealers enter 
very generally into contract relations with dairy farmers 
according to which certain quantities of milk are de- 
livered at schedule prices over greater or less periods 
of time. These contracts usually fix the monthly prices 
for six months at a time. One of the large New York 
companies has recently adopted experimentally the 
new departure of monthly bidding. 

The cry of '^monopoly" is not infrequently raised by 
the farmer, and it is true that as an individual he often 
has no choice to whom and at what price he is to sell his 
milk. The farmer's remedy, as we have pointed out in a 
previous chapter, is organization to protect and ad- 
vance his interests. Certainly, as an individualist he 
is at a vast disadvantage. There are some signs that 
the farmers are beginning to recognize this fact. Col- 
lective action, though spasmodic, has been effected in 
some instances, and the farmers' '^milk strike" has 
recently come into existence in earnest. 

ANOMALIES OF MILK AS A COMMODITY 

Milk as a commodity is characterized by two peculiar 
facts which are to be considered in connection with 
the solution of the milk problem : — 



146 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

1. Stahility of Retail Price. — While the cost of pro- 
duction of milk and the available supply vary from 
month to month, the price to the consumer remains 
constant through long periods. The explanation of 
this seems to lie in the regularity of consumption, which 
enables the dealer to depend on an average price to 
cover fluctuations in cost, and in the avoiding of dif- 
ficulties which would arise from variations in the price 
of a commodity delivered on standing order. At the 
same time custom has brought about what one dealer 
has called 'Hhe tyranny of the conventional price,'' 
and any increase in the established price is sure to call 
forth a storm of public protest. Considerable increases 
in the prices of meats and other foods are accepted 
quite readily, for these prices are subject to constant 
fluctuation, but an increase in the price of milk is re- 
garded as an encroachment. Proposed raising of that 
price often results in starting a '^ scare" with calls for 
prosecutor's investigation, — an interesting example of 
the power of convention. This is a condition naturally 
deprecated by the distributer of milk, through whom it 
reacts on the farmer. 

Attention may here be called to the ticket system of 
payments as a means of adjustment. Under this sys- 
tem the dealer sells the customer for cash a strip or 
book of tickets each of which is good for a quart or a 
pint of milk. Because of the saving to the dealer in 
collections and the ease with which the amount charged 
for tickets can be adjusted so as to take account of 
fractions of a cent in the quart price, customers who 
use tickets can obtain milk at a lower rate than those 
who pay on credit in round cents. With or without 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 147 

this system, the adjustment of retail prices in fractions 
of a cent for regular customers seems worthy of more 
attention than it has received thus far. One of the 
large companies of New York has recently been con- 
sidering the plan of a weekly retail price which will 
allow for fluctuations in cost. 

2. Non-recognition of Quality Differences, —To the 
pubHc ''milk is milk/' and naturally, for the consumer 
ordinarily has no knowledge of its source or actual 
sanitary quahty. Its whiteness and cream Hne are 
all that are visible to the housewife. Hence, while 
eggs, for example, are sold under four or five different 
grades, there is, so far as official designation goes, 
(certified milk aside), generally only one kind of milk 
on the market. Vital distinctions are thus ignored 
which it should be the object of regulation to make 
clear. 

ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF SANITARY 
REGULATION'' 

Those who view the milk problem from the sanitary 
side are so apt to slight the economic bearings of sani- 
tary regulation that some consideration of them here 
will not be out of place. 

In the absence of any effective regulation market 
milk is bought and sold irrespective of sanitary quality. 
In this case ''milk is milk'' and there is one retail price 
for all except in so far as certain milkmen may have 
built up a public reputation of their own. 

Where certain minimum sanitary regulations are put 
into effect, the situation, assuming that the cost of 

* Cf. figures on cost of sanitary items, Appendix D. 



148 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

this minimum sanitation is no considerable item, will 
be much the same. Any tendency to increased price 
will be modified by the fact that cleanliness, refrigera- 
tion, and pasteurization do not operate entirely to 
raise costs, for they have an economic value of their 
own in preserving milk and making it more salable and 
would be practiced to some degree even if not required 
by public authority. Under this condition of enforced 
minimum standards some of the producers and dis- 
tributers would doubtless naturally practice sanitation 
above the requirements, but those dealers who rise 
above the average in this respect would derive no extra 
recompense. 

If, now, the sanitary requirements be made de- 
cidedly strict, a certain number of dealers will find 
themselves unable to meet them, and will go out of 
business. If the cost of production for the others is 
materially increased, there will then normally be a 
corresponding increase in price, and an increase will be 
further favored if the elimination of the other dealers 
has reduced the total supply. The increase in price 
may, on the other hand, reduce the demand, people 
preferring to use less milk and dealers handling no 
more milk than they can profitably sell at the increased 
cost of production. Under these conditions the milk 
industry tends to become concentrated in the hands of a 
comparatively few men who can give it the demanded 
special attention. This is what has happened, for 
example, in a town which is notable for its strict regula- 
tion, viz., Montclair, N. J., where the number of dealers 
has been much reduced and milk is sold at a higher 
price than in neighboring communities. 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 149 

Under the system of regulation by minimum, which 
has thus far been considered, it is clear that the price 
of milk normally takes a single level which corresponds, 
roughly, to the average cost of production. The poorest 
qualities of milk cannot be sold; on the other hand, 
qualities better than the average (with the exception 
of certified milk, where sold) bring no added price and 
there is no economic incentive to produce them.* 

In a recent discussion of the milk situation in Ver- 
mont the Commissioner of Agriculture of that State, 
Hon. E. S. Brigham,^^ mentioned three ways in which 
the situation might be improved : — 

1. The limitation of the requirements of health boards to 
those things which are necessary to safeguard the public 
health. 

2. The payment for milk on a basis which will make a 
distinction in price between good milk and poor milk. 

3. The securing for the producer of a price which will en- 
able him to make a reasonable profit in his business. 

Continuing his discussion of the economic question, 
the Commissioner made the plain statement, based on 
some analysis of figures, ^^I have yet to be shown where 
the shipping of milk, under present conditions, is of 
any value to our Vermont dairyman." Referring to the 
fact that the milk contractor will pay no more than 
he has to, the speaker advocated concerted action by 
the farmers in order to command higher prices. In 
regard to the second of the propositions quoted, the 
Commissioner asserted that, in accordance with the 

* This condition may, of course, be modified by official publicity 
regarding qualities of milks. Such publicity is not, however, very 
effective except under special conditions. Cf. p. 115. 



150 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

economic principle stated in Gresham's law of cur- 
rency, ''if poor milk as a commodity of commerce 
commands the same price as good milk and is cheaper 
to produce, we may expect the milk supply to tend to 
approximate the poore t quality which health officials 
will allow to be sold.'^ Affirming that such premiums 
for quality as have been established by some contrac- 
tors are ''entirely inadequate," he continued: — 

Now the question is this, Can milk which is dirty and 
loaded with bacteria be cleaned by running through a clari- 
fier, have its bacteria killed by pasteurization, and still be a 
good, clean, wholesome product, fit for human consump- 
tion? If so, there is very little need to encourage cleanliness 
in production, because when the producer of clean milk sees 
his product emptied into the same vat with the product of 
the filthy producer, as is now the case, and he receives no 
reward for his pains taken, he soon grows tired of attempting 
to produce a clean product, and the quality of the milk supply 
sinks to a low level. I have been repeatedly asked by . . . 
contractors to devise some way to encourage the produc- 
tion of clean milk. I have always inquired if clean milk was 
worth any more than dirty milk so that they would care to 
make an adequate distinction in price, but I have not yet 
had a satisfactory answer. 

The remedy of this situation is obviously not the 
throwing of discredit upon clarification and pasteuriza- 
tion — processes good in themselves — but the estab- 
lishment and enforcement by health authorities of 
standards which will act back to the original product 
and necessitate a monetary distinction between good 
milk and better milk and rule out the worse. For if 
certain official grades of milk are established (as was 



THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 151 

described in the last chapter), there is brought about a 
market condition in accordance with facts, each grade 
pubhcly recognized commanding a price corresponding 
to its quaHty and cost of production. This condition 
supersedes — or should supersede — any unofficial or 
ill-defined characterizations, such as are sometimes 
given to milk by dealers. Most important of all, from 
the economic standpoint, superior grades of milk are 
then no longer lumped with the inferior, hut bring the 
higher price to which they are entitled. Only thus can 
justice be done to both producer and consumer. 



CHAPTER V 
HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 

It now remains only to sum up the indications of 
the preceding chapters, together with some considera- 
tions of a more sweeping character. 

THE GREAT NEED: MANIFESTATION OF VALUES 

The great difficulty in the milk situation to-day is 
that values, both sanitary and economic, are not 
clearly recognized. Milk is the one staple food which 
varies in sanitary value, in food value, and in cost of 
production without these variations being generally 
recognized in retail price. This is the ^^milk is milk^^ 
difficulty. 

Eggs are sold according to freshness, butter accord- 
ing to flavor, flour according to its bread-making quali- 
ties, meat according to the cut; but milk is sold, by an 
outgrown custom, as plain milk — a white fluid in a 
can or a bottle. If it can be sold as such, the dealer is 
satisfied; if he obtains cream for his coffee and an 
opalescent liquid for his children, the customer is con- 
tent. The dairyman of slovenly methods may compete 
with the cleanly, careful dairyman so long as he man- 
ages to meet the minimum requirements of the law. 
He may get the same price, and his methods play the 
predominant part in fixing the market price of the 
product known without discrimination as ^^milk." 

152 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 153 

For such reasons authorities are agreed that milk 
should he graded according to definite standards and 
should be labelled and sold on that basis. It only re- 
mains to put the principle into operation. 

Principles of Grading * 

The following considerations should govern grading: 

1. It should take account of sanitary quality, i. e., 
of safety and decency. 

2. It should take account of composition, i. e., roughly 
speaking, of nutritional quality. 

3. It should be simple and practicable. The grades 
should be few and the requirements as simple as pos- 
sible. 

4. It should take account of uses, with special refer- 
ence to infant feeding.f 

5. It should be evident to the consumer, which 
means clear and simple labelling. 

The requirement of safety will make pasteurization 
essential for all grades except, possibly, raw milk of 
the highest class. The impossibility of immediately 
securing general pasteurization in many communities, 
especially small ones, may, however, necessitate con- 
cessions. This is the case with the classification pre- 
scribed by the Sanitary Code of New York State (Ap- 
pendix B). 

In addition to the criterion of pasteurization, the 
most feasible basis of classification as to sanitary quality 

* For grading systems see Appendix B. 

t A rational classification is: (1) For infants and children (Grade A, 
raw and pasteurized) ; (2) For adults (Grade B, pasteurized) ; (3) For 
cooking and manufacturing purposes only (Grade C, pasteurized or 
boiled — to be authorized only where necessary). 



154 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

appears to be the total count of bacteria. Other labora- 
tory tests may also be found to be applicable, with 
special reference to dirt determination. Objections 
to dairy score requirements for the different grades 
have been discussed in Chapter III. The logical way 
to rate milk is by the quality of the product itself, not by 
the equipment of the dairy or the methods which the 
dairyman is believed to use. In short, the proof of the 
milk is the testing. 

The most practical criterion of composition is the 
butter-fat percentage, which varies more than the 
solids not fat, is easy of determination, and is a point 
of particular importance in artificial infant feeding. 

A natural application of the above considerations 
would be to grade milk according to sanitary quality 
as ''Grade A," ''Grade B," etc., with the use of the 
word ^^raw" or ''pasteurized"; then to add a figure 
indicating for each supply the butter-fat percentage. 
This latter might be stated by limits of variation, e. g., 
" 3.5 to 4.0% fat," or by a single figure, as " 3.5% fat," 
with a legal limit as to the permissible variation of the 
actual content from such figure. Butter-fat labelling 
has not yet, so far as the writer knows, been attempted, 
but has been proposed * and, if proved to be prac- 
ticable, would be the logical way of selling milk accord- 
ing to richness. It would ensure the purchaser the 
desired amount of cream and, if sufficiently accurate, 
would be a guide for removing cream from milk in pre- 
paring it for infant feeding. At the same time, the 
health authorities would have to perform sufficient 

* See recommendation by the Commission on Milk Standards,, 
p. 92, which further advises a guaranty of milk solids not fat. 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 155 

testing and dealers would have to exercise care in mix- 
ing milks so that the fat percentages would correspond 
with the markings; otherwise these would only be mis- 
leading. 

Under the grading system the producer is paid for 
the kind of milk that he produces, the dealer is paid 
for the kind or kinds that he sells, and the consumer 
pays for what he chooses to buy; and this result comes 
about largely automatically. Natural differences will 
be evident instead of being confused. The great mass 
of consumers will doubtless continue to buy the cheap- 
est milk that they can, but an increasing public recog- 
nition of the better grades should develop when these 
are clearly labelled and their use advocated by health 
authorities. The system is therefore not merely puni- 
tive as regards bad milk but is a means of developing 
the production of good milks. 

The Public Value of Milks 

It is obvious that the availability of a given milk to 
the consumer depends not only upon its sanitary and 
food quality but also upon the price which he has to 
pay. Dr. Charles E. North has sought to combine 
the various items involved, by means of an ingenious 
method of rating the public value of different milks. 
Dr. North states that ^'the public value of milk, as- 
suming that the average chemical composition of the 
different grades and classes on the market is about the 
same, depends chiefly on three fundamental charac- 
teristics. These are safety, cleanliness, and price.'' 
His method of rating, on a scale of 100, is set forth in 
the following table: — 



156 



THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



POINTS 
FOR SAFETY 



PERFECT . 



50 



Pasteurized in bottles 50 

Pasteurized in bulk, and bottled 45 
Medical 1 

Veterinary [ Inspection 30 

Sanitary J 

Scoring farms 25 

No Inspection 



POINTS 
FOR DECENCY 



PERFECT 25 



BACTERIA 
IN RAW PRODUCT 
10,000.. 25 

100,000.-20 

200,000.. 19 

500,000.. 10 

1,000,000. . 5 

Over 1,000,000. . 



POINTS 
FOR PRICE* 



PERFECT . . .25 



9c or less . 

10c 

lie 

12c 

15c 



20c 



25 
20 
15 
10 
5 





(Clarification would add 5 points to decency of all milk and in the 
case of raw milk would also add 5 points to safety.) 

This scale, applied, for example, to the milks sold 
in New York City, gives values ranging from 89 down 
to 70 for the three market grades A, B, and C. Certi- 
fied milk is valued at 60, being rated down on safety 
and price, while ordinary raw milk, excluded from sale 
by the above grading, is given no credit except for 
price, having the low value of 25. Dr. North states 
that ^Hhe milk of the future will be reasonably clean 
and scientifically pasteurized, and will be sold at a 
moderate price. Such milk as Grade A pasteurized at 
9 or 10 cents per quart is the milk toward which the 
industry and the majority of sanitary authorities are 
now working." This method of rating and its implica- 
tions are discussed by Dr. North in publications on the 
subject.^ It is obviously not to be taken too literally, 
but simply as making general comparisons between 

* Price scale adjusted to prevailing market prices for bottled milks, 
minimum here being taken as 9 cents. 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 157 

established grades of milk more definite than would 
otherwise be possible. 

COSTS AND PRICES * 

Here may be summed up the main considerations 
relating to costs and prices. These may be conven- 
iently shown as follows : — 

FACTORS 

TENDING TO RAISE COSTS TENDING TO LOWER COSTS 



Increasing farm costs of feeds, 
labor, and other necessaries 

Agricultural inefficiency 

Increasing distances and rates of 
transportation 



Improvement of dairying 

methods 
Greater efficiency of milk plant 

machinery and methods and 

of distribution (all favored by 

concentration) 



Increasing city expenses of dealer . 

Sanitation Simplification of sanitary require- 

ments 

TENDING TO ADJUSTMENT OF COSTS AND PRICES 

Recognition of grades 
Organization of farmers 

The above is simply a view of salient features with 
the omission of considerations as to supply and de- 
mand, adjustment of railroad rates, and other compli- 
cating factors. 

Regarding the general level of milk prices, the im- 
pression got from considerations set forth in the last 
chapter is that, at time of present writing, costs are 

* Cf. Appendix D, Costs and Prices. 



158 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

increasing distinctly more rapidly than the price to the 
consumer. Hence, while better methods in milk sanita- 
tion will tend to keep down costs, the consumer must 
expect, so long as these are actually increasing, to pay 
for the increase. If, as appears, a great deal of milk 
is now produced at little or no profit or even at a loss, 
and this is becoming increasingly recognized, then 
rising prices must naturally be looked for. Again, 
wherever materially stricter sanitary requirements 
are made, it is to be expected that a corresponding 
compensation in increased price will be demanded. 

It is unreasonable to expect that, when the costs of 
staples and labor are rising, the price of milk should 
remain stationary, for the farmer and dealer are sub- 
ject to the same economic conditions as the popula- 
tion in general. Regarding any increase in the retail 
price, it is fair to suppose that it should be shared by 
farmer and dealer. Up to the present the farmer appears 
to have had the small end of the division of profits. At 
the same time a legitimate increase in price paid to the 
producer should not serve as an excuse to dealers acting 
in concert or combination to raise unduly the price to 
the consumer. Unfortunately the present system re- 
quires retail prices to be stepped up or down by whole 
cents, while the dealer can adjust his price to the pro- 
ducer in small fractions. 

As to the cost of sanitation considered separately, 
sanitary milk need not cost much more than unsani- 
tary milk. Some idea of the items in this regard is 
given by the North system (page 78) and by some of 
the figures in Appendix D. 

The advantages of the ticket system and of the ad- 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 159 

justment of retail prices by fractions of a cent have 
already been discussed in Chapter IV (pages 146-47). 

Whatever price readjustments take place with the 
adoption of the grading system will normally be the 
just results of recognition of quality. In New York 
City Grade A milk sells at one cent a quart more than 
Grade B, while Grade C (an unbottled milk for cooking 
or manufacturing purposes) is two cents below B. It 
is clear that since proper grading in the average com- 
munity, would raise standards, corresponding in- 
creases in prices might be expected, but these would 
fall chiefly or wholly on the better grades, and should 
be by no means excessive. 

Finally, the system of grades, by clearing up con- 
fusion, permits freer play to the economic force of com- 
petition and to the economic law of supply and de- 
mand. There has been much talk about securing the 
cooperation of the dairyman and persuading him to go 
to trouble and expense for improvements which are 
not recognized in an increased price for his product 
over that of other diarymen less amenable to persua- 
sion. Cooperation is an excellent thing, and it is well 
to encourage individual effort. But competition is, 
after all, the dominant force. It is not necessarily true 
that, as has been asserted, '^commercial competition 
hurts the quantity and the quality of the milk supply." 
Quality is impaired only when sanitary regulation is 
so inadequate as to permit it to be. Establish and 
enforce definite milk standards for different grades, 
and competition should operate to produce each grade 
most efficiently and cheaply, while economic law should 
ensure that the supply of each approximate the de- 



160 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

mand, — although, to be sure, these effects are subject 
to modification by conditions of present-day milk in- 
dustry which we have considered elsewhere. 

THE ROLE OF THE LABORATORY 

In gauging the quality of milk the scientific method 
is to rely upon the indication of the laboratory as op- 
posed to the less accurate indications of inspection. 
Reasons for this have already been set forth in Chapter 
III, in the discussion of the score-card method of 
dairy inspection. By means of inspection such matters 
as health of cows and methods of operating milk plants 
may be looked after, but, as regards operations in the 
dairy, it is seldom possible to observe them. Inspec- 
tion is therefore chiefly a means of giving advice or 
instruction to the dairyman. But, by means of the 
laboratory, samples of a milk may be taken at any 
stage of its history and subjected to specific tests. 
These tests can disclose not only its general bacteri- 
ological and chemical character but also, perhaps, the 
quantity of dirt which has contaminated it, and can 
even detect abnormal udder conditions in the milch 
cow when physical examination of the animal would 
not do so. 

Laboratory methods are steadily being developed in 
scope and exactitude. They must rightly be regarded 
not as a mere adjunct of inspection but as a first means 
of indicating where inspection — or rather instruc- 
tion — is needed. 

A recent paper by Dr. Charles E. North, arguing 
cogently for proper correlation of laboratory and in- 
spection work, and putting the laboratory test hejore 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 161 

the inspection, along the hne from city to country, 
concludes as follows (italics inserted) : — 

In forming plans for the expenditure of the annual ap- 
propriation for milk control the milk dealer as well as the 
health officer should bear in mind that one laboratory worker 
can test the milk of fifty dairy farms for bacteria while one 
dairy inspector is inspecting five dairy farms, and that there- 
fore one dollar spent in laboratory testing covers as much 
territory as ten dollars spent in dairy inspection. The labora- 
tory test should come first and make the diagnosis; the dairy 
inspector should come second and apply the remedy. These 
principles result in the greatest economy and efficiency, 
whether control is being exercised by the milk dealer or by 
the health officer.^ 

THE ROLE OF INSPECTION 

Inspection seems to have been originally regarded 
as a species of policing, often with the elements of de- 
tective work. The object was to ^^ catch" the bad 
milkman. This idea has now been largely superseded 
by that of advice, of ^'education of the dairyman." 

Dairy Demonstration 

The conclusion toward which modern milk control 
is tending is this: if the product, the milk itself, is to 
be judged, rather than the dairy, and the dairj^man 
understands that its resultant bacterial character is 
the all-important thing, then he will welcome advice 
which will help him to produce better milk. If he be 
held responsible and be paid for good results, he will 
practice the methods for getting them.* And if those 

* Under the North system (p. 78) it was stipulated that the dairyman 



162 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

methods be simplified to the greatest possible degree, 
so that he is not confused and discouraged by minutiae, 
then his cooperation will be completely secured. 

All of this has been shown to be perfectly possible 
by North's methods (described in Chapter III, where 
also the use of a new type of score card was discussed) . 
Mere inspection as a mode of regulation has certain 
serious inherent difficulties. The usual impossibility 
of being present at milking time and other times when 
operations connected with milk are going on has made 
inspection often a mere survey of premises and equip- 
ment. Questioning and injunctions do not ensure that 
the dairyman use specified utensils and methods. A 
small-topped milking pail on the wall may mean 
nothing. But if the dairyman is directly responsible 
for the bacterial content of his milk, he will not wisely 
shirk methods as he is tempted to do when the emphasis 
is placed on inspection. 

Under these circumstances inspection, far from 
being the bane of the farmer, would be indispensable 
to him. Its frequency would be governed by the re- 
sults of laboratory tests. It would be largely instruc- 
tional; the inspector would be an adviser or demon- 
strator of methods. The idea of inspection proper 
would of course apply to such special examinations as 
may be required, taking of samples, surveillance of milk 
plants and of the sale of milk, and similar functions. 
And when methods are to be criticised, advice or warn- 
ing on the basis of unfavorable bacteriological tests 
will carry far more weight than any made '4n the air.'^ 

should share his sanitary premium with his milkers, thus carrying the 
principle of payment for results to its logical extent in this direction. 

' V 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 163 

A sane milk supply [says a recent writer] must be cheap 
enough to be within reach of the common people; for this 
purpose certified milk is a failure; on the contrary, if dairy 
demonstration supersedes dairy inspection, and laboratory 
tests the score card in grading milk, when care is made su- 
perior to equipment . . . then a clean milk may be had at 
a reasonable price as well.^ 

ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION * 

The ideal plan for the administration of milk laws 
would combine local and state supervision. Sanitary 
authority being primarily local in nature, local munici- 
palities should have ample power to control their' milk 
supplies; but there are certain things outside of their 
territorial limits that can be done more efficiently by 
the state. Local control has developed in advance of 
that of the state, but the tendency is now toward giv- 
ing greater powers of supervision (not abridging, but 
supplementing, those of local municipalities) to state 
authorities. Local authorities could, under proper 
organization, enforce their ordinances through the 
cooperation of the latter, who would thus exercise 
supervision but not actual control. Modern laboratory 
methods fortunately enable each municipality (pro- 
vided laboratory facilities are adequate) accurately to 
gauge the quality of milk as it is received within its 
limits. ^^ Country work" by state authorities is an 
advantage for the reasons that they may economically 
district their territory, that reduplications and long 
trips by local officials may be avoided, that supplies 
rejected by one municipality may be prevented from 

* Cf . following section, on Legislation. 



164 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

going to another without detection, and that uniformity 
of methods may be secured and friction ehminated. 
Supphes originating in one State and sent to neighbor- 
ing States for sale may be supervised by officials of the 
latter on condition of not being allowed entry to the 
State without approval of their quality and treatment 
and access of such officials to the sources and the line 
of transportation. Theoretically, the state might best 
perform all the necessary supervision outside of the 
limits of each municipality.* But many municipalities 
do all or a great deal of such work, for state control is 
undeveloped and inamediate expediency has dictated 
such activity. 

The state authorities referred to are those dealing 
with health and with agriculture and animal industry. 

One problem [says Dean Russell of the Wisconsin College 
of Agriculture] which so far has not received the attention 
which it should is the correlation of the work which should 
be performed by the state. At present three generally unre- 
lated state organizations may be concerned with the milk 
problem : 

(1) State boards of health, which are directly interested 
in public health problems. 

(2) State live-stock sanitary boards, or live-stock commis- 
sions, which are concerned with the control of animal dis- 
eases. 

(3) State dairy and food commissions, which control the 
purity and wholesomeness of food supplies. 

Too frequently there is no correlation in the work of these 
respective bodies. The milk problem touches all three of 

* This principle was endorsed by the New York Milk Committee 
in 1913, in a plan advocating uniform state legislation fixing milk 
standards. 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 165 

them, with none of them is it a dominant phase of their 
activity. The consequence is that the problem in its en- 
tirety does not receive the adequate attention of any of them. 
In this respect improved conditions would undoubtedly 
obtain, if a more thorough correlation of these various or- 
ganizations could be brought about. 

The milk problem, as such, is properly a hygienic matter. 
Under these conditions, there is no question but that the 
public health organization is in a better position to exercise 
more effective control than either of the other two.* 

The work of Federal authorities in this field is chiefly 
advisory, consisting in investigation, advice to States 
and communities, and publication of information of 
more or less general application. 

The situation as to state control is commented upon 
by Dr. Charles V. Chapin, in a recent survey of the 
work of state health departments, as follows : — 

The subject of milk control is one of the most complicated 
and difficult in the whole field of public health. There are 
some who feel that it is a local problem and should be left 
to the municipahties to work out for themselves. The ma- 
jority believe theoretically in uniform state laws and state 
control, but these are difficult of attainment. In agricul- 
tural states, with small cities, the difficulties are not so great, 
and they are most acute in the northeastern states, where 
there are many large cities and less good agricultural land. 
Theoretically, the State Board of Health should be entrusted 
with the enforcement of milk laws, as well as consulted in 
their framing. Actually, state legislatures have not given 
the State Board of Health much authority, owing to fear 
on the part of the farmers. In some states it is claimed that 
authority over milk has been given to the department of 
agriculture, to keep it away from the health department, or 



166 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

a special dairy department has been created for a similar 
purpose.^ 

The development of extension work hy state agricul- 
tural authorities is of the greatest importance. It is not 
sufficient to publish scientific bulletins; the most ef- 
fective service requires that agricultural experts — ad- 
visers or demonstrators — go regularly to the farmer and 
assist him with his problems. In preceding paragraphs 
we have seen how important is this practical advice as 
distinguished from mere inspection and how it is a nec- 
essary complement of milk regulation 

LOCAL SUPERVISION 

Granted that efficient public health service and a 
system of grading have been established, the most im- 
portant single means of local supervision is the labora- 
tory. The apparatus for performing even as many as 
100 to 200 bacteria tests daily can be installed at a 
small expenditure ($200 to $500).^ (The apparatus for 
ordinary chemical tests is also inexpensive.) Under ex- 
pert supervision, tests may be made by a careful worker 
(young man or woman) at a very moderate salary. 

The effort should be made to examine each supply 
for total count at least once a week, especially during 
the warmer months, and to make any special examina- 
tions that may be necessary.* Chemical tests may 
be made less frequently, unless milks are labelled for 
fat content. Other laboratory tests, e. g., for dirt, may 
also be practiced. 

The amount of attention devoted to milk supply by 

* Cf . resolution of Commission on Milk Standards relative to tests 
for grading, Appendix B. 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 167 

local health authorities varies greatly. Information 
collected by the Department of Agriculture in 1912-13 
from 162 cities of the United States showed that the 
amount of money spent for dairy inspection ranged all 
the way from nothing to 19 cents per capita per annum, 
with an average of 3.6 cents. But, beyond the mere 
fact that the amounts were spent, we know nothing as 
to the methods, efficiency, or results accomplished. 

Cooperative Local Supervision. — In connection with 
local work mention must be made of the fact that com- 
munities which are too small to be able to afford ade- 
quate milk control, and especially the laboratory at 
which it should center, may cooperate in maintaining a 
common laboratory and joint service. Such coopera- 
tion is in effect at Wellesley, Mass., with a number of 
neighboring towns, at La Salle, Oglesby, and Peru, 111., 
where a common Hygienic Institute, or health depart- 
ment, has been established; and among the munici- 
palities centering about Orange, N. J. In the first two 
cases the cooperation is for public health service in 
general, while in the last case it is simply for super- 
vision of milk supplies. It is obvious that such plans 
not only simplify and economize the control of over- 
lapping milk supplies, but also make it possible for 
even the smallest of the towns concerned to obtain 
expert service and adequate laboratory facilities at a 
moderate cost. 

LEGISLATION 

What has been said in the preceding section fore- 
shadows the remarks appropriate to this head. While 
the sanitary function of milk regulation is 'primarily a 



168 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

local matter, there is now a tendency to make state 
legislation more specific and to give the state board of 
health or some other body power to promulgate regula- 
tions applying to the state as a whole, excepting, per- 
haps, the largest cities. Such legislation and regulations 
may ensure uniformity of fundamental requirements, 
and are a special manifestation of the general tendency 
to establish state sanitary standards. A notable step 
in this direction has been taken in New York State, 
where a sanitary code prescribed by the Public Health 
Council applies throughout the State with the excep- 
tion of New York City. (For the system of milk grad- 
ing established by this code, see Appendix B.) A 
similar power has also been conferred upon the State 
Board of Health of New Jersey. 

Legislatures may embody more or less specific regula- 
tion in statute, leaving subordinate regulations to some 
special body, or they may confer large general powers 
in the matter to such a body. The normal agency for 
the formulation of state regulations primarily affecting 
public health is the state board of health, but, on ac- 
count of the several interests involved, there has been 
some controversy as to what body should be empowered 
to prescribe milk regulations. Composite boards or 
commissions have, therefore, been proposed in which 
health and agricultural authorities should play the 
chief part, along with representatives of local boards 
of health, farmers' and dealers' organizations, etc. 
It seems clear, however, that the sanitary authorities 
should alone be vested with power to establish regula- 
tions primarily affecting health. A mixed board, es- 
pecially if at all large, is likely to be a disharmonious 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 169 

and therefore a weak board. The practical effect of 
such a board is Hkely to be to obstruct if not to nulhfy 
the efforts of the health authorities. Compromises 
are the result of undue jealousy on the part of agricul- 
tural and milk industry interests, which cannot in 
justice oppose legitimate sanitary control under proper 
legislation. 

LOCAL DIFFERENCES 

Local or regional differences in the intensity of the 
milk problem are determined by the following general 
factors : — 

1. Degree of urbanization and of development of 
milk traffic. 

2. Value of agricultural lands. 

3. Development of efficiency of the dairying in- 
dustry. 

4. Costs of feeds and other farm material, of farm 
labor, transportation, handling, and distribution. 

5. Sufficiency or insufficiency of local milk supply. 

6. Sanitary control or its absence. 

7. Adjustment or maladjustment of milk prices. 
These factors naturally vary greatly according to 

place, and certain of them fluctuate from month to 
month. A complete survey of the milk situation of a 
region or city is a matter of much complexity. Men- 
tion of some such surveys is made in Appendix E. 

To establish sanitary control in any given town or 
city, extensive preliminary investigation is usually 
unnecessary. Chief attention is to be paid to the ques- 
tion of how much laboratory and inspection work is 
necessary for the given number of supplies, dairy farms, 



170 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

milk plants, etc., and its cost. Facts well recognized 
regarding the milk problem in general should be as- 
sumed. It is well to bear in mind that some local data 
have primarily an administrative value, while others 
are assembled chiefly in order to convince governing 
and appropriating bodies of the necessity of control. 
In proposing regulation the recommendations of the 
National Commission on Milk Standards should be 
consulted. In establishing the grading system it is of 
course necessary to specify a thorough working mech- 
anism as a prerequisite to the proper enforcement of 
the system. 

CENTRALIZATION, COOPERATIVE PLANS, 
MUNICIPALIZATION 

The difficulties, sanitary and economic, of the milk 
problem under present trade conditions are such that 
various plans for centralization and cooperation have 
been proposed. These may be classified as fol- 
lows : — 

1. Farmers' cooperative milk depots in country dis- 
tricts. — Such a plan has been described by the Boston 
Chamber of Commerce committee as quoted on pages 
142-44 of the present volume. Under this head may 
also be included plans for the organization of such 
depots under the auspices of city organizations, as in 
the case of the Homer plan (Appendix C). 

2. Farmers' cooperative city marketing, involving sale 
of milk by bidding or auction to city dealers, with the 
object of breakiag up price-dictation by middlemen. 
This has recently been proposed by New England 
producers shipping milk to Boston. 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 171 

3. Cooperative pasteurization plants, under private 
or public control. 

4. Central city delivery, under private or public 
control (see pp. 139-40). 

5. Complete municipalization, — i. e., handling under 
the control of the municipality from the farm to the 
consumer. This plaa has recently been proposed for 
all municipalities in the State of Rhode Island by a 
legislative commission of inquiry (Appendix E) . 

Concentration is clearly a great factor in efficiency, 
as is shown by the large milk companies of the cities. 
Individual retailers^ as well as the farmers, have been 
slow to see the great advantage of concentration; hence 
they labor under difficulties. Farmers' cooperative 
milk depots in country districts have been advocated 
as practical (see pp. 142-44). Cooperative pasteuriza- 
tion and central distribution to obviate the wasteful 
overlapping of delivery routes have been tried in 
one instance known to the writer, with apparent 
success (see p. 250). Certain practical difficulties are to 
be met in connection with these last ideas, — difficul- 
ties which could be obviated only by amalgamation 
or assumption of the interests of the dealers involved 
(see p. 140). The association of individual dealers to 
form businesses of efficient size would eliminate the 
disadvantages and wastes existing when bottling, 
pasteurization and distribution are so dispersed that 
overlapping of function and high operating expenses 
are inevitable. There is more hope in the general 
recognition of this economic fact by dealers and in 
their voluntary or economically forced amalgamation 
of interests than in cooperative plans which have to 



172 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

contend with the individuaUstic attitude of retailers 
in competition. 

Those who advocate the extreme of municipaUza- 
tion — for instance, Nathan Straus ^ — draw a parallel 
between water supplies and milk supplies, and argue 
that, as municipalities have had to own the former, so 
they will have to come to owning the latter. The basis 
of the parallel is that milk, like water, is distributed 
in larger quantities and bears an important relation 
to public health, and that milk supply cannot be satis- 
factorily controlled by public authority acting in a 
simply supervisory capacity. The mere condemnation 
of the idea as ^' socialistic" is, of course, superficial; 
it should be examined on its actual desirability. 

The proposition comes into relation with the general 
idea of municipal management of public utilities. It 
may be taken as a principle of political economy that 
such management, in general, should not be under- 
taken unless public regulation has proved to be a failure. 
Such failure is most likely to occur in connection with 
monopolies, and the argument is strongest in the case 
of natural monopolies, such as water supply. But 
in the case of milk supplies, monopoly is seldom ad- 
vanced as a reason, the proposal of municipalization 
being based upon desired expediency of regulation or 
efficiency of operation. 

As a general principle, '^ reasonably successful regula- 
tion,'^ writes the economist Taussig,^ ''is more easy 
to attain than reasonably successful public manage- 
ment," and under conditions in the United States there 
has been a marked and justifiable tendency to rely 
upon private enterprise for the performance of even 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 173 

distinctly public services of an industrial character. 
The supplying of water to town and city dwellers has 
been (as another economic authority^ says) ^Hhe only 
important exception . . . and this has been under- 
taken by municipal governments less because of any 
distrust of private enterprise in this field than because 
good water has been demanded by public opinion even 
before the business of supplying it gave promise of 
proving financially successful." The writer jast quoted 
also cautions us that, in general, ^Hhe objections to 
such policy [municipal ownership or management] for 
the cities of the United States are very strong." ^^ 

In point of actual operation the public assumption 
of the milk trade, especially by large cities, would 
obviously involve serious difficulties not found in the 
simple taking-over of a water system. In view of the 
fact that there are as yet (so far as the writer knows) 
no data of the actual operation of any such plan, cau- 
tion is certainly justified. The immediate embarrass- 
ment arising from disturbance of the milk trade must 
be considered, as well as the possible evils of political 
control. The debate between those who believe that 
the difiiculties of the milk problem can thus be swept 
away at a stroke and those who hold that satisfactory 
public supervision is not only possible but safer and 
more favorable to efficiency than public management 
would be, is not unlikely to issue into some trial of the 
idea.* Auspicious conditions for this might possibly 

* The author has not been able to obtain any information as to 
whether the idea of municipaUzation has been put into practice any- 
where in the United States. At Jamestown, N. Y., however, a plan 
has been under consideration {Western Medical News, June, 1915). 
Municipal milk plants, mainly for pasteurization, have been proposed 



174 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

be found in a well-governed municipality, of the smaller 
size, where the town functions of individual farmer- 
retailers could readily be assumed by the municipality 
without serious disturbance. In instances where the 
question of the tuberculin test is being agitated, farmers 
might prefer to sell to a cooperative or municipal pas- 
teurizing and distributing plant rather than under- 
take the test. Such a plant might possibly be financed 
and managed by an association of citizens with the 
object of securing better milk and eliminating in- 
eJHiciency in distribution, as an alternative to munic- 
ipal management. In short, as with some other pro- 
posals of cooperation or municipalization, exceptional 
local conditions might perhaps render such a project 
feasible. But the sweeping claims attached to the 
general idea must certainly be viewed as extravagant. 

THE GIST OF THE MATTER 

To sum up the salient factors in the solution of the 
problem: — 

Milk must he both safe and decent. — It should also 
be of known food value. 

To secure Decency: Supplies should be controlled by 
laboratory tests supplemented by inspection in which 
instruction in simple, rational methods of clean milk 
production should play the chief part. 

in several instances. The Health Officer of Brookline, Mass., makes 
such a proposal in a recent report. The most conspicuous plan of munic- 
ipal management is that recently proposed by a legislative commission 
in Rhode Island (see Appendix E). It is interesting to note that even 
a socialist, John Spargo, while accepting the theory of socialization of 
milk supplies, has not favored attempting to apply it under American 
conditions ("The Common Sense of the Milk Question," 1908). 



HOW SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 175 

To secure Safety: All milk, excepting possibly a class 
of the highest grade, should be pasteurized under ade- 
quate official supervision.* 

To secure Justice: Milk should be graded and labelled 
on the basis of laboratory tests and pasteurization. 

Grading and the laboratory are the most important 
single means of sanitary control. 

Grading is the most important single factor in eco- 
nomic adjustment. 

Quality should be recognized through fair milk prices 
to both farmer and dealer. 

The advantages of centralizing at a few plants the 
operations of handling, pasteurization, bottling, and 
distribution should be recognized. 

WHO IS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM? 

While the various factors in the milk problem some- 
times appear to have reached a pass which may be 
described as a puzzle, a deadlock, or a '^muddle," its 
solution should not be so difficult as it often seems, 
provided only that facts be recognized and right prin- 
ciples adopted. It will not, however, be lastingly 
solved by any one group of persons without regard to 
the others concerned. 

Health authorities must adopt improved methods 
of sanitation and, with legislative sanction and sup- 
port, establish rational regulation based upon the 
grading principle. 

* It may here be again noted that, although the recommendations 
of the National Commission on Milk Standards leave the pasteuriza- 
tion of " Grade A " milk optional, the majority of the commissioners 
voted in favor of the pasteurization of all milk. 



176 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 

Legislators must recognize the necessity of legisla- 
tion authorizing such regulation, as opposed to the 
dangers of inaction or partisan interest. 

Agricultural authorities must advise the farmer in 
the methods of producing sanitary milk efficiently. 

The dairy farmer must welcome this assistance and 
make use of all possible means of improving his methods 
and management, and he must organize. 

The dealer must respect the interests of the farmer, 
work for the solution of their common problems, and 
pay a fair price for milk according to quality. 

The consumer, finally, must recognize quality in 
milk; he must be willing to pay a fair price for good 
milk and a reasonably higher price for better milk. 



REFERENCES 

(References are given for the more important matters cited in 
the text, but no attempt has been made to make the hst exhaustive.) 

Chapter I. Why There is a Milk Problem 

1. Sedgwick, Wm. T., 'Principles of Sanitary Science and the 

PubUc Health," New York: The Macmillan Co., 1905, p. 263. 

2. Farmers' Bulletin 363, 1910 (reprint, 1915), pp. 33-35. 

3. Ihid., p. 7. 

4. North, C. E., "Safeguarding Nature's Most Valuable Food, 

Milk," pamphlet prepared for the New York Milk Com- 
mittee, 1915. Cf. note, "The bacteriology of milk from 
normal udders," Jour. Am. Med. Assn., 1916, vol. LXVI, 
p. 1930. 

5. U. S. Children's Bureau, "Baby-saving Campaigns," 1913, p. 45. 

6. Park, Wm. H., and Holt, L. R., "Report upon the results with 

different kinds of pure and impure milk in infant feeding in 
tenement houses and institutions of New York City: A 
cHnical and bacteriological study," Archives of Pediatrics, 
Dec, 1903. 

7. Meigs, Grace. (Children's Bureau, U. S. Dept. of Labor), 

"Other factors in infant mortaUty than the milk supply, and 
their control," Am. Jour. Public Health, 1916, vol. VI, p. 847. 

8. "Milk and Its Relation to the PubHc Health," Bull. 56, Hyg. 

Lab., U. S. Pubhc Health Service, 1909, p. 25. 

9. Rosenau, M. J., "The Milk Question," Boston: Houghton 

Mifflin Co., 1912, p. 90. 
10. Biggs, H. M., "Milk-borne septic sore throat — a new pubHc 
health problem," Medical Record, Dec. 4, 1915. 
Davis, D. J., "Milk epidemics of septic sore throat in the 
United States and their relation to streptococci," Science, 
Nov. 13, 1914, p. 1037. 
MacNutt, J. S., "A Manual for Health Officers," New York: 
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1915, p. 288. 

177 



178 REFERENCES 

11. Park, Wm. H., "The role of bovine tuberculosis in the produc- 

tion of human tuberculosis," Trans. XV Internal. Congress 
on Hyg. and Demography, 1912, vol. IV, pp. 267-72. 

12. Rosenau, M. J., "Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," New 

York: D. Appleton and Co., 1913, pp. 124-25. 

13. Ibid., p. 124. 

14. Rosenau, M. J., "The Milk Question," p. 97. 

15. Goler, G. W., 2d Ann. Trans. Am. Assn. for Study and Prev. 

of Infant Mortality, 1911. 

16. North, pamphlet cited. 

17. Kelley, Eugene R.: "The evidence available as to the relative 

importance of milk as a means of transmission of communi- 
cable diseases, compared with other means of transmission," 
Rpt. of Special Milk Board of Mass. State Dept. of Health, 
1916; "The quantitative relationship of milk-borne infection 
in the transmission of human communicable diseases," Jour. 
Am. Med. Assn., 1916, vol. LXVII, p. 1997. 

Chapter II. The Case To-day 

1. Sedgwick, op. cit., pp. 271-72. 

2. Rosenau, "The Milk Question," pp. 19-20. 

3. Parker, H. N., "The city milk trade," Nat. Mun. Review, Oct., 

1913, p. 737. 

4. Cook, L. B., "The encouragement of clean milk production," 

Circ. 38 (from 62d Ann. Rept.), Mass. State Bd. of Agricul- 
ture, 1915. 

5. Rosenau, "The Milk Question," pp. 243-44. 

6. Parker, loc. cit. 

7. Conn, H. W., "Will any milk do?". Harper's Weekly, Feb. 8, 

1913. 

8. Luening, F. W., Deputy Health Commissioner, Milwaukee: 

personal communication. 

9. Chapin, C. V., "Effective lines of health work," Providence 

Medical Jour., Jan., 1916. 

10. Chapin, personal communication, Sept. 29, 1916. 

11. Schneider, Franz, Jr., "Relative values in public health work," 

Am. Jour. Public Health, Sept., 1916. 

12. Boston Transcript, March 3, 1916. 



REFERENCES 179 

Chapter III. The Sanitary Factors 

1. Parker, loc. cit. 

2. Sedgwick, op. cit., p. 265. 

3. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. 126, 1892, p. 25. (Quoted in 

Bull. 56, Hyg. Lab., U. S. Public Health Service, p. 450.) 

4. Kelley, Ernest, ''Medical milk commissions and certified 

milk," Bull. 1, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1913. 
Coit, Henry L., "The work of medical milk commissions . . . ," 

Trans. XV Internal. Congress on Hyg. and Demography, 

1912, vol. IV, p. 611. 
"Methods and standards for the production and distribution 

of 'certified milk,'" adopted by the Am. Assn. of Med. 

Milk Commissions, 1912: Reprint 85 from Public Health 

Reports. 

5. Brew, James D., "Milk quality as determined by present dairy 

score cards," Bull. 398, N. Y. Agric. Experiment Station, 
Geneva, N. Y., 1915. 

6. Harris, J. A., Science, Oct. 8, 1915, p. 503. 

7. Brainerd and Mallory, "A study of the bacterial count and 

dairy score card in city milk inspection," Bull., Virginia 
Polytechnic Institute, Sept., 1911. 

8. Harding, Ruehle, Wilson, and Smith, "The effect of certain 

dairy operations upon the germ content of milk," Bull. 365, 
N. Y. Agric. Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y., 1913. 

9. Ibid. 

10. North, "A Survey of dairy score cards," Am. Jour. Public 

Health, 1917, vol. VII, p. 25. 

11. North, "Sterihzing stations in dairy districts," Jour. Am. Public 

Health Assn., 1911, vol. I (o. s. VII), p. 654. 

12. North, "The market value of cleanHness in milk production," 

address dehvered at 36th Ann. Convention, N. Y. State 
Dairymen's Assn., 1912. 

13. North, "Bacterial testing versus dairy inspection, Am. Jour. 

Public Health, 1916, vol. VI, p. 572. 

14. See 10. 

15. "Infant mortahty and milk stations," special report of Com- 

mittee on Reduction of Infant Mortahty, of the N. Y. Milk 



180 REFERENCES 

Committee, 1912; Kerr, J. W., "Data regarding operations 
of infants' milk depots in the United States in 1910," Re- 
print 64 from Public Health Ryts.; and many other sources. 

16. Am. Food Jour., Aug., 1907, p. 33. (Quoted in Bull. 56, Hyg. 

Lab., U. S. Pubhc Health Service, 1909, p. 380.) 

17. Reprint 141 from Public Health Rpts., 1913. 

18. Reprint 192 from Public Health Rpts., 1914. 

19. See 17. 

20. Reprint 295 from Public Health Rpts., 1915. 

21. Weinzirl, John, "A safe and sane milk supply," read in 

Jan., 1916, before Subsection D-IV, Sec. VIII, Pan-American 
Scientific Congress; to be printed by the Congress. 

22. Campbell, H. C, "Comparison of the bacterial count of milk 

with the sediment or dirt test," Bull. 361, U. S. Dept. of 
Agriculture, June 29, 1916. 

23. Wells, C. H., "The successful efforts of a small city to secure a 

milk supply from tuberculin-tested cows," Am. Jour. Public 
Health, 1912, vol. II, p. 703. 

24. Reprint 141 from Public Health Rpts., 1913. Cf. bulletins 

relating to pasteurization pubhshed by U. S. Dept. of Agri- 
culture. 

25. Reprint 141 from Public Health Rpts., 1913. 

26. Jordan, E. 0., "The case for pasteurization," Trans. XV In- 

ternal. Congress on Hyg. and Demography, vol. IV, p. 627; 
Ayers, S. H., "The present status of the pasteurization of 
milk," Bull. 342, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

27. Kilbourne, Chas. H., "The Pasteurization of Milk from the 

Mechanical Viewpoint," New York: John Wiley and Sons, 
Inc., 1916. (The dealer contemplating pasteurization or 
improvement of methods will find this book of advantage in 
comparing different types of commercial pasteurizing ma- 
chinery.) 

28. "The value of boiled milk," editorial. Jour. Am. Med. Assn., 

1916, vol. LXVII, p. 1674. 

29. Ayers, S. H., and Johnson, W. T., Jr., "Pasteurization in bottles 

and the process of bottling hot pasteurized milk," Jour. In- 
fectious Diseases, 1914, vol. XIV, p. 217. 

30. Sedgwick, Wm. T., "American achievements and American 



REFERENCES 181 

failures in public health work," Am. Jour. Public Health, 1915, 
vol. V, p. 1105. 

31. Bahlman, Clarence, "Milk clarifiers," Am. Jour. Public Health, 

1916, vol. VI, p. 854. 

32. Baldwin, H. B., "Some observations on homogenized milk and 

cream," Am. Jour. Public Health, 1916, vol. VI, p. 862. 

Chapter IV. The Economic Factors 

1. Cook, L. B., loc. cit. under Ch. II. 

2. Boston Transcript, March 8, 1916. 

3. Clean Milk Bulletin (Charles E. North), Dec, 1911. 

4. Editorial, Jacksonville, Fla., Times-Union, March 6, 1913. 

5. Kelly, Ernest, "Factors influencing the cost of milk to the 

consumer," Hoard's Dairyman, April 24, 1914, 

6. Bull. 156, U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, March, 1915; 

Monthly Review, same Bureau, vol. II, no. 6, June, 1916. 

7. Kelly, loc. cit. 

8. Kelly, loc. cit. 

9. Cook, loc. cit. 

10. Williams, John R., "The economic problems of milk distribu- 

tion in their relation to the pubhc health," Trans. XV In- 
ternal. Congress on Hyg. and Demography, 1912, vol. V, 
p. 128. 

11. Report on Milk Investigation, Boston Chamber of Commerce, 

1915, p. 32; cf. p. 61. 

12. Ibid., pp. 49 if. 

13. BuU. Vt. State Bd. of Health, Dec. 1, 1916. 

Chapter V. How Solve the Problem? 

1. North, C. E., "The pubhc value of different milks," Med. 

Record, Nov. 22, 1913; "Safeguarding Nature's Most Valu- 
able Food— Milk," booklet issued by N. Y. Milk Committee, 
1915. 

2. North, "Bacterial testing versus dairy inspection," Am. Jour. 

Public Health, 1916, vol. VI, p. 578. 

3. Weinzirl, op. cit. under Ch. III. 

4. Russell, H. L., "The function of the state in milk-control 



182 REFERENCES 

work," Trans. XV Internat. Congress on Hyg. and Dem- 
ography, 1912, vol. IV, p. 600 f. 

5. Chapin, C. V., Report on State Public Health Work, based on 

a survey of state boards of health, Am. Med. Assn. (n. d., 
1915 or 1916), p. 171. 

6. North, loc. cit. (2), p. 573. 

7. Straus, Nathan, "The relations of the city to the milk supply," 

Am. Jour. Public Health, 1915, vol. V, p. 11. 

8. Taussig, F. W., "Principles of Economics," New York: The 

Macmillan Co., 1913, p. 413. 

9. Seager, H. R., "Introduction to Economics," New York: 

Henry Holt and Co., 1906, p. 457. 
10. Seager, "Economics: Briefer Course," 1909, p. 368. 

General References 

Although the literature of milk is very voluminous, there are few 
good books on the subject. Most of the vital information is scat- 
tered through periodical and bulletin literature such as that to 
which the preceding references relate. 

The most valuable single item is the reports of the National 
Commission on Milk Standards appointed by the New York Milk 
Committee (105 East 22d Street, New York City), which contain 
important recommendations concerning grading and regulation of 
milk and milk products. 

A comprehensive work dealing with the various phases of milk 
industry and methods of control, by Horatio N. Parker, has re- 
cently appeared: " City Milk Supply" (McGraw-Hill, 1917). 

One of the best general works, non-technical, is Rosenau's "The 
Milk Question" (Houghton Mifflin, 1912). 

"Milk and the Pubhc Health," by W. G. Savage, an Enghsh 
authority who quotes freely from American sources (Macmillan, 
1912), is an excellent summary of professional milk literature up 
to that date. This work deals with the bacteriology and bac- 
teriological examination of milk, milk and human disease, and 
control of milk supplies. A still more recent work, also English, 
of the same character, is "Milk and Its Hygienic Relations," by 
Dr. Janet E. Lane-Claypon (Longmans Green, 1916). 



REFERENCES 183 

In 1908 the Hygienic Laboratory of the United States Public 
Health Service pubhshed a large volume entitled "Milk and its 
Relation to the PubUc Health," embodying monographs on the 
various phases by different collaborators. This was revised and 
enlarged and repubhshed as Bulletin No. 56 of the Laboratory, 1909. 

Bulletins on various subjects relating to milk and to dairy hus- 
bandry and industry are constantly being pubhshed by the United 
States Pubhc Health Service, by the United States Department of 
Agriculture, and by state departments of agriculture and experiment 
stations. Papers and notes appearing in such journals as are 
mentioned in the foregoing bibhography may also be consulted 
for current developments.. 



APPENDIX A 

« 

SOME MILK STATISTICS 

GENERAL ESTIMATES FOR THE UNITED STATES * 

Total annual production of milk (1915) 

11,590,000,000 gallons t 
(115 per capita) 

Value of the same, on the farms $2,320,000,000 

Milch cows on farms (Jan. 1, 1916) 21,988,000 

Value of the same. $1,185,119,000 

Average yield per cow 537 gallons per year 

Average per capita use of milk as such. . 0.6 pints per day 

* Drawn from Monthly Crop Report, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 
vol. 2, no. 1, Jan. 31, 1916. 

t Of this the larger part is used for the manufacture of butter, cheese, 
condensed milk, and other milk products. The proportion consumed 
as milk is estimated as about one-quarter of the whole. 



185 



186 



APPENDIX A 



Population and Milch Cows in the United States. Compiled 
and computed from the U. S. Census and the Yearbook of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture for 1915. (Except as otherwise noted, 
figures relate to January 1 of each year.) 



Year 


Population of 

continental 

United States 


Milch cows 


Milch cows 

per 1,000 of 

population 


Average 

price per 

head 


1880 

1890 

1900 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

1908 

1909 

1910 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1915 

1916 


* 50,155,783 

* 62,947,714 
75,451,000 

* 75,994,575 
76,938,000 
78,556,000 
80,174,000 
81,792,000 
83,410,000 
85,028,000 
86,646,000 
88,264,000 
89,882,000 
91,500,000 

t 91,972,266 
93,118,000 
94,736,000 
96,354,000 
97,972,000 
99,590,000 

101,208,000 


* 12,443,120 

* 16,511,950 
16,292,000 

* 17,135,633 
16,834,000 
16,697,000 
17,105,000 
17,420,000 
17,572,000 
19,794,000 
20,968,000 
21,194,000 
21,720,000 
21,801,000 

t 20,625,432 
20,823,000 
20,699,000 
20,497,000 
20,737,000 
21,262,000 
21,988,000 


J 248 

t263 
216 

|225 
219 
212 
213 
213 
211 
233 
242 
240 
242 
238 

|224 
224 
219 
213 
212 
213 
217 


$23.27 
22.14 
31.60 

30.00 
29.23 
30.21 
29.21 
27.44 
29.44 
31.00 
30.67 
32.36 
35.29 

39.97 
39.39 
45.02 
53.94 
55.33 
53.90 



* Census as of June 1. 
t Census as of April 15. 
X At date of census. 



APPENDIX A 



187 



Milch Cows, by States: 1905, 1915, and 1916. Fundamental 
figures are taken from Yearbooks of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
for 1904, 1914, and 1915. 

(Numbers represent thousands, estimated for January first of each 
year.) 



Maine 

New Hampshire . 

Vermont 

Massachusetts . . 
Rhode Island . . . 



Connecticut. . 
New York . . . 
New Jersey . . 
Pennsylvania . 
Delaware .... 



Maryland 

Virginia 

West Virginia . . 
North Carolina 
South Carolina . 



1905 


1915 


189 


157 


130 


95 


285 


268 


191 


157 


25 


23 


131 


118 


1,722 


1,509 


185 


146 


1,087 


943 


35 


41 


147 


177 


153 


349 


180 


234 


193 


315 


110 


185 



Increase 
(per cent) 



17 

20 

128 

30 

63 

68 



Decrease* 
(per cent) 



17 

27 

6 

18 



10 
12 
20 
13 



1916^^ 



159 

97 

273 

155 

22 

119 

1,539 

152 

971 

42 

181 
359 
241 
321 
189 



* In considering the exact significance of the movements shown in 
this table, the ratio between the estimated number of milch cows and 
the estimated population of the state at each date should be taken into 
account. Thus relatively to population, several other States — e. g., 
Illinois — would be placed in the group showing decrease as between 
1905 and 1915. Figures on actual production of milk in the years 
taken are not available, but the question of productivity may be dis- 
regarded in considering the general phenomena brought out by the table. 

t This column is added to show the recent trend, as between 1915 
and 1916. It will be observed that those States which showed a de- 
crease during the preceding decade have now (and perhaps had before 
the close of the decade) entered a period of increase, with the exception 
of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In Connecticut, however, this 
increase appears to be less than proportionate to the increase in popu- 
lation. 



188 



APPENDIX A 



Georgia 

Florida 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Michigan 

Wisconsin. . . . 
Minnesota. . . . 

Iowa 

Missouri 

North Dakota 
South Dakota. 

Nebraska 

Kansas 

Kentucky. . . . 

Tennessee. . . . 
Alabama. . . . . 
Mississippi. . . 
Louisiana. . . . 
Texas 

Oklahoma. . . . 

Arkansas 

Montana 

Wyoming. . . . 
Colorado 

New Mexico . . 

Arizona 

Utah 

Nevada 

Idaho 

Washington. . . 

Oregon 

California. . . . 

All States. . . 



1905 

277 
87 
791 
548 
995 

556 
1,096 

837 
1,336 

570 

194 
402 
669 
671 

287 

283 
230 

272 
166 
838 

187 

281 

55 

20 

121 

20 
19 
73 
17 

60 
159 
139 
355 

17,572 



1915 



406 
133 
895 
646 
1,007 

814 
1,626 
1,186 
1,377 

797 

339 
453 
625 
726 
390 

355 
384 
434 
268 
1,086 

494 
387 
114 
46 
205 

68 
44 
92 
24 

120 
253 
210 
541 

21,262 



Increase 
(per cent) 



47 
53 
13 
18 
1 

46 

48 

42 

3 

40 

75 
13 



39 

25 
67 
60 
61 
30 

164 

38 
107 
130 

70 

240 
132 

26 

41 

100 
59 
51 
52 

20.9 



Decrease 
{per cent) 



1916 

414 
136 
922 
672 
1,047 

847 
1,675 
1,210 
1,391 

837 

373 

485 
650 
762 
406 

366 
396 
447 
271 
1,119 

519 
402 
129 
50 
219 

76 
53 
96 
25 

126 
263 
216 
568 

21,988 



APPENDIX B 

GRADING SYSTEMS 

COMMISSION ON MILK STANDARDS 
of the New York Milk Committee * 

Proper milk standards are essential to efficient milk con- 
trol by public health authorities. In the first place health 
authorities must ascertain that the chemical composition 
corresponds with established definitions of milk as food, but 
their more important duty is to prevent the transmission of 
disease. This means the prevention of the transmission by 
milk of infant diarrhea, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, septic 
throat infections, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and other infec- 
tious diseases. In the interests of milk consumers public 
health authorities must take positive action to prevent the 
transmission of any of these diseases, in addition to their 
duty of preserving the food value of milk. 

The milk producer is interested in proper standards for 
milk, and should support a movement to secure proper stand- 
ards, for the reason that these contribute to the well-being 
and dignity of the milk industry itself. Proper standards, 
rightly enforced, distinguish between the good-milk producer 

* Extracts from 3d Report (Public Health Reports, Feb. 16, 1917). 
This commission is national in personnel and scope and is loosely known 
as the " National Commission on Milk Standards." The reader is 
earnestly referred to the reports of the Commission for fuller informa- 
tion on milk control, production, handling, and distribution than can 
be given in these limited excerpts. These reports are the most im- 
portant item in milk control literature. They may be obtained from 
the N. Y. Milk Committee, 105 East 22d St., New York City. 

189 



190 APPENDIX B 

and the bad-milk producer. This inevitably will lead to the 
improvement of dairy farming, and eventually to an increase 
in the financial prosperity of the milk producer himself 
through better prices for better milk. It will enable the pro- 
ducer to get properly paid for the quality of milk he produces, 
and thus put that industry for the first time upon a depend- 
able basis. 

The milk dealer finds the classification of milk resulting 
from milk standards to his financial advantage for the reason 
that it identifies clearly first-class milk and distinguishes it 
from second-class milk. Such a distinction gives to the seller 
of first-class milk the commercial rewards which such milk 
deserves, and the official label creates a market for first-class 
milk which the dealer alone is unable to create. 

For milk consumers the setting of definite standards ac- 
companied by labeling with official control of the labels 
makes it possible to know the character of the milk which is 
purchased, and to distinguish good milk from bad milk. The 
establishment of standards for quality, and of labels on 
retail packages indicating the quality, compels the industry 
not only to purchase milk on a quality basis, but also to 
sell milk on a quality basis. The selling of milk strictly on a 
quality basis, which includes not only chemical composition 
but sanitary character, makes it possible for consumers by an 
inspection of the label intelligently to select milk which in 
quality and price is most suitable for their needs. 

ADMINISTRATIVE EQUIPMENT 

Standards are useless unless properly guarded and enforced. 
The chief objection that has been raised to a grading system 
for milk is the difficulty of insuring that milk labeled as of a 
certain grade is actually of that grade when sold to the con- 
sumer. 

The prime requisite for efficient milk control is that health 



APPENDIX B 191 

departments shall be adequately equipped with men, money, 
and laboratory facilities. The commission is of the opinion 
that satisfactory results cannot be expected from laws when 
there is not sufficient appropriation, and when there is no 
machinery for their enforcement. A survey of the money 
appropriated for milk control shows that in the majority of 
municipalities this is entirely insufficient for public needs. 
The key to the solution of the problem of the proper use 
of grade labels is the laboratory. The establishment and 
operation of an efficient milk testing laboratory is commonly 
supposed to be an item of great expense. This, however, 
the commission is convinced, is a mistake, since there are 
numerous laboratories scattered all over the land not only 
private, but public, which are inexpensive and operated at 
low cost. By efficiency methods a large number of tests can 
be made at a very low cost. Even small communities can 
afford to maintain and operate such laboratories. Where 
for any reason it is not possible to do this, it has proven to be 
practicable for one community to enter into laboratory 
arrangements with another, and even several can combine 
in the use of a common laboratory. 

GRADING OF MILK 

There is no escape from the conclusion that milk on the 
market must be graded just as other commodities such as 
wheat, grain, beef, etc., are graded. The milk merchant 
must judge not only of the food value but also of the sanitary 
characteristics of the commodity in which he deals. . . . The 
high-grade product, fresh and cold, will cost more to buy 
from the producer, and should sell for more to the consumer 
than does the low-grade product. The commission's most 
important work has been the attempt to separate milk into 
grades and classes. The commission has endeavored to make 
its grading system as simple as possible, and at the same time 



192 APPENDIX B 

to distinguish between milks which are essentially different 
in their sanitary and other character. The commission is 
convinced that the experience of the last three years has 
fully demonstrated the value of the grading system in the 
communities in which it has already been applied, both from 
a pubhc health and an economic standpoint. The commis- 
sion believes that the grading of milk offers a satisfactory 
solution for most of the sanitary and economic problems 
which have hitherto prevented efficient milk control, and 
that it is feasible for small communities as well as large 
communities to adopt a grading system and to secure its 
benefits. . . . 

The Commission believes that all milk should be classified 
by dividing it into three grades, which shall be designated 
by the letters of the alphabet. It is the sense of the Com- 
mission that the essential part is the lettering and that all 
other words on the label are explanatory. In addition to the 
letters of the alphabet used on caps or labels, the use of other 
terms may be permitted so long as such terms are not the 
cause of deception. Caps and labels shall state whether 
milk is raw or pasteurized. The letter designating the grade 
to which the milk belongs shall be conspicuously displayed 
on the caps of bottles or the labels of cans. 

The requirements for the three grades shall be as follows: 

Grade A 

Raw Milk. — Milk of this class shall come from cows free 
from disease as determined by tuberculin tests and physical 
examinations by a qualified veterinarian, and shall be pro- 
duced and handled by employees free from disease as deter- 
mined by medical inspection of a qualified physician, under 
sanitary conditions, such that the bacteria count shall not 
exceed 10,000 per cubic centimeter at the time of delivery 
to the consumer. It is recommended that dairies from which 



APPENDIX B 193 

this supply is obtained shall score at least 80 on the United 
States Bureau of Animal Industry score card.* 

Pasteurized Milk. — Milk of this class shall come from cows 
free from disease as determined by physical examinations 
by a quaUfied veterinarian, and shall be produced and han- 
dled under sanitary conditions, such that the bacteria count 
at no time exceeds 200,000 per cubic centimeter. All milk of 
this class shall be pasteurized under official supervision, and 
the bacteria count shall not exceed 10,000 per cubic centi- 
meter at the time of delivery to the consumer. It is recom- 
mended that dairies from which this supply is obtained 
should score at least 65 on the United States Bureau of 
Animal Industry score card. 

Grade B 

Milk of this class shall come from cows free from disease 
as determined by physical examinations, of which one each 
year shall be by a qualified veterinarian, and shall be produced 
and handled under sanitary conditions, such that the bac- 
teria count at no time exceeds 1,000,000 per cubic centi- 
meter. All milk of this class shall be pasteurized under 
official supervision, and the bacteria count shall not exceed 
50,000 per cubic centimeter when delivered to the consumer. 

It is recommended that dairies producing Grade B milk 
should be scored, and that the health departments or the con- 
trolhng departments, whatever they may be, strive to 
bring these scores up as rapidly as possible. 

Grade C 

Milk of this class shall come from cows free from disease, 
as determined by physical examinations, and shall include 

* The fallacy of the present dairy-score requirements for grades has 
been discussed in the present volume (pp. 73, 74, 75). It is found in all 
the classifications given in this appendix. — J. S. M. 



194 APPENDIX B 

all milk that is produced under conditions such that the 
bacteria count is in excess of 1,000,000 per cubic cen- 
timeter. 

All milk of this class shall be pasteurized, or heated to a 
higher temperature, and shall contain less than 50,000 
bacteria per cubic centimeter when delivered to the con- 
sumer. 

Whenever any large city or community finds it necessary, 
on account of the length of haul or other peculiar conditions, 
to allow the sale of Grade C milk, its sale shall be surrounded 
by safeguards such as to insure the restriction of its use to 
cooking and manufacturing purposes. 

[Recommendation relative to bacteriological tests for 
grades : — ] 

That the grade into which a milk falls shall be determined 
bacteriologically by at least five consecutive bacteria counts, 
taken over a period of not less than one week nor more than 
one month, and at least four out of five of these counts (80 
per cent) must fall below the limit or standard, set for the 
grade for which classification is desired. 

[The Commission's definition of pasteurization has been 
quoted on a previous page (p. 103).] 

CREAM 

Cream should be classified in the same grades as milk in 
accordance with the requirements for the grades of milk, 
excepting the bacterial standards, which in 18 per cent cream 
shall not exceed five times the bacterial standard allowed 
in the same grade of milk. 

Cream containing other percentages of fat shall be al- 
lowed a modification of this required bacterial standard in 
proportion to the change in fat. 



APPENDIX B 195 

Grades for Small Cities and Towns 

This Commission recognizes that, because of chmate, 
size of the community, nearness to the sources of supply, 
ease of transportation, and progress already made in im- 
proving the general milk supply and in educating the dairy- 
men and the pubHc, different communities are in position 
to secure varying degrees of excellence in their standards for 
the grades of milk. This Commission, therefore, urges that 
its standards for Grade A, B, and C milk be regarded as 
minimum standards, and that any community may adopt 
higher requirements for its grades if its conditions make this 
feasible and desirable. 

As a guide to health officers in the establishment of grades 
best adapted to their local communities, the following gen- 
eral broad principles are offered : — 

(1) A careful preliminary survey of the milk situation 
should be made before the requirements of the several grades 
are adopted. 

(2) No matter how excellent the general milk supply of a 
community, it is not all of a single standard of excellence; hence 
there are actually different grades of milk in every community, 
and the recognition of such grades is always advantageous. 

(3) Grades in any community should always be such as 
to separate into two, or at most three, classes the milk supply 
of that special community. Where little or nothing has been 
done towards improving the general milk supply, it may be 
desirable to adopt temporary grades (but not below the 
minimum requirements suggested by this Commission), 
with a time limit as to when more rigid requirements for the 
grades will be enforced. 

(4) Grades as adopted in any community should be such 
as not, under any circumstances, to sanction the sale of milk 
below the minimum standards which it is feasible for that 
community to require. 



196 APPENDIX B 

(5) Whatever departures are made by any community 
from the exact definition of grades as recommended by this 
Commission, several fundamental principles are recognized 
by the Commission as of universal application, and from 
these there should be no variation. These fundamental 
principles are: — 

(a) Grade A milk in a general way, is milk which complies 
with requirements of such character and degree that, for all 
practical purposes, no real advantage would be gained by 
further and higher requirements. The standards for this 
grade should, therefore, be placed high enough to attain this 
end, but not so high as to limit too greatly the supply or, 
through unduly raising the price to the consumer, to limit 
too greatly the demand. 

(b) Grade B milk is all the remaining milk of the com- 
munity which is suitable for drinking purposes, after pas- 
teurization, but which does not comply with the high re- 
quirements for Grade A milk. 

(c) Grade C milk is milk which falls below the minimum 
requirements for milk suitable for drinking purposes, even 
after pasteurization. Its use must be confined to cooking 
and manufacturing purposes. Recognition of this grade of 
milk is not recommended by this Commission except in 
communities in which such recognition is an economic neces- 
sity. 

(6) The fundamental objects in grading milk are : — 

(a) To aid in making safe for human consumption all 
milk which can legally be sold for drinking purposes; 

(6) To distinguish between classes of milk which, while 
all are safe, are of different degrees of excellence in respect to 
cleanliness and care in handling. 

Each community should, therefore, endeavor to grade 
its milk supply so as best to attain these objects without 
departure from the broad general principles above laid down. 



APPENDIX B 197 

NEW YORK CITY * 

The basis of this system is the division of suppHes into: 
(1) milk for infants, (2) milk for adults, and (3) milk for 
cooking and manufacturing purposes only, — ^requiring three 
corresponding grades. 

Grade A 

Raw Milk. — Cows tuberculin-tested annually and in good 
physical condition. Bacterial limit, 60,000 per c.c. Dairies 
to score 75 on the Department's score card.f 

Pasteurized Milk. — No tuberculin test required, but cows 
must be healthy — annual physical examination. Bacterial 
limits: 200,000 before, 30,000 after, pasteurization. Required 
dairy score, 68. 

Grade B 

Pasteurized Milk. — No tuberculin test required, but cows 
must be healthy — annual physical examination. Bacterial 
limits — before pasteurization: 1,500,000 if pasteurized in 
city, 300,000 if pasteurized outside city; after pasteurization, 
100,000. Required dairy score, 55. 

Grade C 

(For cooking and manufacturing purposes only) 

Pasteurized Milk. — No tuberculin test required, but cows 
must be healthy — annual physical examination. Bacterial 

* Abstracted from the Rules and Regulations relating to the Sale 
of Milk and Cream of the Department of Health of New York City, 
to which the reader is referred for further particulars. (See also: Brown, 
Lucius P., ''The experience of New York City in grading market milk," 
American Journal of Public Health, July, 1916, p. 671.) This classi- 
fication closely approximates that quoted above. 

t There are also score requirements for equipment and methods 
separately considered, in addition to the total score required under 
each grade. See footnote, p. 193 of the present volume, regarding score 
requirements in general. 



198 APPENDIX B 

limit after pasteurization, 300,000. Required dairy score, 40. 
(Grade C milk is milk not conforming to the requirements 
of any of the above classes and which has been pasteurized 
properly or boiled for at least two minutes. 

Pasteurization 

Official definition: subjection to a temperature averaging 
145° F. for not less than 30 minutes. 

CLASSIFICATION OF CREAM 

The same classification applies to cream, but the bacterial 
limits (after pasteurization, except in the first case) are as 
follows: Grade A (raw), 300,000; Grade A (pasteurized), 
150,000; Grade B (pasteurized), 500,000; Grade C (pas- 
teurized), 1,500,000. 

The following commentary from the Secretary of the New 
York Milk Committee, Mr. Paul E. Taylor, regarding the 
effects of grading in New York City, is of interest (italics 
inserted) : — 

Notwithstanding the Department's activities in enforcing the 
present standards, the good dealers and the clean producer agree 
that the new system of grading milk on its sanitary character for the 
first time gives public recognition to those who produce and handle a 
clean article. 

That the dealer recognizes the commercial value of Grade "A'' 
pasteurized milk is shown by the fact that one large company doing 
business in several cities, in October, 1914, was selling an average 
daily total of 22,000 quarts of Grade ''A" pasteurized nilk, pro- 
duced under conditions in accordance with requirements of the 
New York City Board of Health regulations, and the producers of 
which received a bonus because of the extra care exercised. Wher- 
ever this milk was sold it bore the label "Grade A Pasteurized" and 
brought 1 to 3 cents a quart more than the ordinary bottled milk. 
In October, 1915, the average daily sale of this milk by the company 
was 500,000 quarts. The managers of the company say this method 



APPENDIX B 199 

of giving recognition to clean milk is the best thing that ever happened 
to the milk industry. 

. . . The success of the system depends upon maintaining the 
integrity of the label. 

About 99 per cent of New York City's milk supply is pasteurized.* 

NEW YORK STATE f 
Grade Af 

Raw Milk. — Annual tuberculin test. Bacterial limit: 
60,000. Dairies must score 25 per cent for equipment, 50 
for methods, on the score card officially prescribed. 

Pasteurized Milk. — Annual physical examination of cows. 
Bacterial limits: 200,000 before pasteurization; 30,000 after. 
Required dairy scores: 25 per cent for equipment, 43 for 
methods. 

Grade B 

Raw Milk. — Annual physical examination of cows. Bac- 
terial limit: 200,000. Required dairy scores: 23 per cent for 
equipment, 37 for methods. 

Pasteurized Milk. — Annual physical examination of cows. 
Bacterial limits: 1,500,000 before pasteurization; 100,000 
after. Required dairy scores: 20 per cent for equipment, 
35 for methods. 

* Personal communication, Dec. 6, 1915. 

t Abstracted from the Sanitary Code estabHshed by the Public 
Health Council of the State of New York, as amended, to and including 
Oct. 5, 1915. The above are only the saUent requirements; the reader 
is referred to Ch. Ill of the Code and its revisions for details. The 
classification is prescribed to apply except as otherwise stated, through- 
out the State with the exception of New York City. Some account of 
its working is given by Linsly R. Williams, Deputy Commissioner of 
Health, ''The grading of milk in small communities," Am. Jour. Public 
Health, Oct., 1916. 

J Certified milk constitutes a special class. 



200 APPENDIX B 

Grade C 

Raw Milk. — Required dairy score, 40 per cent. 
Pasteurized Milk. — Same. 

CREAM 

Cream is classified in the same grades, but the bacterial 
limits are higher. 

The bacterial count herein required shall be made only at county 
* or municipal laboratories or such other laboratories as may be ap- 
proved by the state commissioner of health. 

In those municipalities where a bacterial count of the milk is, 
in the opinion of the local health authorities, impracticable, they 
may in their discretion grade milk and cream according to the score 
of the dairies producing it, as prescribed in this regulation, but no 
such milk shall be designated ''certified," "Grade A raw," or 
''Grade A pasteurized." * 

This regulation shall not be construed to rescind or modify any 
existing local regulation or ordinance controlling the grading of 
milk or cream established prior to the first day of September, 1914. 

The health authorities of any municipality may in their 
discretion increase the stringency of these regulations or add 
to them in any way not inconsistent with the provisions 
thereof. 

It will be noted that the above classification is more lenient 
than those preceding. In view of this fact and the circum- 
stance that this is the first state classification, it may be 
presumed that these standards may later be raised. 

RICHMOND, VA. 

Richmond, Va., a city of some 150,000, the health depart- 
ment of which has long been active in clean milk work, has 

Such authorizing of grades according to dairy scores alone is a very 
serious defect of this system. See footnote, p. 193. — J. S. M. 



APPENDIX B 201 

recently established a simpler classification than any of the 
above, as follows: — 

Grade A 

Raw Milk. — Cows free from disease and tuberculin-tested. 
Employees free from disease. Bacterial limit: 25,000 (No- 
vember to March, inclusive); 50,000 (April to October). 
Required dairy score (U. S. Official): 80 points, of which 
at least 45 for methods. 

Pasteurized Milk. — Same, with bacterial limit after pas- 
teurization of 5,000. 

Grade B 

Pasteurized Milk. Cows free from disease — at least one 
official physical examination per year. Bacterial limits: 
250,000 before pasteurization, 25,000 after. Required dairy 
score, 70 (65 permitted, temporarily). 

Cream is classified in the same manner, but with higher 
bacterial standards. 

ORANGE, N. J. 

The following plan was adopted in 1915 under the co- 
operative organization for milk control in Orange, N. J., and 
neighboring municipalities (see page 167) : — 

Grade A 

Raw Milk. — Cows in good physical condition and tuber- 
cuHn-tested. Bacterial limit: 50,000 (November to April, 
inclusive); 100,000 (May to October). 

Pasteurized Milk. — Cows physically examined. Bacterial 
limits: 200,000 before pasteurization and 30,000 after 
(summer months); 100,000 before and 10,000 after (winter 
months). 



202 APPENDIX B ^ 

Grade B 

Raw Milk. — Cows in good physical condition and tuber- 
culin-tested. Bacterial limit: 100,000 (winter months); 
300,000 (summer months). 

Pasteurized Milk. — Cows physically examined. Bacterial 
limits: 750,000 before pasteurization and 75,000 after (sum- 
mer months); 500,000 before and 40,000 after (winter 
months) . 

Score requirements (U. S. Official card), respectively: 
75, 70, 65, 60. 

Certified milk is made an extra class. 

EXTENSION OF THE GRADING IDEA 

Other communities than the foregoing have also adopted 
or are considering grading systems. The author has not 
sought to make a complete collection of data on the subject. 
The New York Milk Committee has sought to bring the rec- 
ommendations of the Commission on Milk Standards be- 
fore many communities, and reports that the grading idea 
is making encouraging progress as shown in recent milk 
regulations. 



APPENDIX C 

THE NORTH SYSTEM * 

Origin and Development. — The plan of milk production 
and milk handling outlined below was first proposed by 
Dr. Charles E. North in September, 1903. In old barns on 
the premises of his certified dairy farm in New Jersey and in 
old barns in the immediate neighborhood, he was successful 
during the years 1903 and 1904 in producing milk containing 
exceedingly small numbers of bacteria by the practice of a 
system which he had devised. In 1908 Dr. North became a 
member of the New York Milk Committee and pointed out 
to this organization the advantages of this method of milk 
production. This committee raised the capital for the or- 
ganization of a small milk company, which had for its object 
the carrying out, experimentally, of this milk system on a 
large scale. Because of its experimental character the milk 
company took the title of The New York Dairy Demonstra- 
tion Company. 

For two years past [i. e., since 1910] the company has 
operated a milk shipping station at Homer, N. Y., and has 
produced milk in accordance with the system proposed by 
Dr. North and has conducted all its sanitary operations 
under his personal supervision.! Beginning with three dairy 

* Reprinted, by permission, from a description issued in 1912, by 
Dr. Charles E. North, Director, North Public Health Bureau, 30 
Church St., New York City, with additional notes from information 
personally communicated. This system is referred to at p. 78 of the 
present volume. 

t ''Since the rather perilous undertaking at Homer," writes Dr. 
North, ''the soundness of the principles developed there has been em- 

203 



204 APPENDIX C 

farms and about 600 quarts of milk two years ago, the com- 
pany now receives milk from about 70 dairy farms and its 
volume of business has grown to more than 10,000 quarts 
daily. It has found its largest market in the infant milk 
depots operated by the New York Milk Committee and 
under the auspices of the New York City Department of 
Health. During the summer of the present year there have 
been 55 milk depots in Manhattan and Brooklyn, feeding 
during the hot months 14,000 babies per day. The company 
has supplied all of the milk to these stores and this supply 
has been a large factor in the reduction of infant mortality, 
which this summer has been the lowest in the history of the 
city. 

Outline of North's Milk System 

1. Object. — The objects of this system are the production 
of clean milk at low cost; to secure clean milk from the 
present milk producers and under the auspices of present 
milk dealers with the least possible disturbance of commer- 
cial conditions; to reduce to a minimum the dairy equipment 
and the sanitary measures used on dairy farms, retaining 
only those things positively essential for clean milk produc- 

phatically demonstrated, not only there, but in numerous other places." 
There are now (1916) established under supervision of Dr. North a 
station in Maryland, one in New Jersey, three in Pennsylvania, two 
more in New York State, and one in Vermont. There are over one 
hundred farms supplying milk to the Homer station at the present 
time, and the total number of quarts is over 20,000 quarts daily. The 
number of milk depots in Manhattan and Brooklyn is now over sixty, 
and the number of babies feeding from these is nearly 25,000 daily. 
At Oxford, Pa., the station ships milk produced by 135 dairymen. 
"This place," says Dr. North, "is more remarkable than Homer, 
because the majority of the men do not have ice, and the character of 
their barns and dairy equipment is very much inferior to that at Homer, 
yet, in spite of these drawbacks, the majority of them are producing 
milk with a very low bacterial count." 



APPENDIX C 205 

tion; the securing of such clean milk as is to be sold in a raw 
condition; the cleaning up of all milk which is to be pas- 
teurized, in the belief that all milk used for drinking purposes 
should be clean in the first instance, whether pasteurized or 
not. 

2. Centralization. — The backbone of the system is the 
principle of centralization. While modern business has 
brought about great organizations in the selling department 
of the milk industry, the producing end of the line has been 
left largely to shift for itself. Milk producers are permitted 
to produce milk under their own auspices and by such meth- 
ods as their ignorance and carelessness may dictate. Many 
things done on dairy farms can be done much better in a 
central station. Among these are washing and sterilizing 
of milk cans and milking pails, bottling of milk and labora- 
tory testing of milk. Sixty per cent of the dairy farms have 
polluted well water and as large a percentage have inefficient 
methods of washing and sterilizing utensils and of cooling 
milk. 

3. Organization. — The advocates of certified milk have 
not considered fully business organization. Certified dairies 
make no use whatever of the principle of centralization. 
Each certified dairy conducts its business in a most extrava- 
gant and inefficient manner. Each certified dairy farm is 
fully equipped to conduct its business as a separate unit, 
regardless of the volume of business. 

Instead of each farm being a separate unit with a small 
volume of business. North's Milk System makes them each 
a part of a large organization with a large volume of busi- 
ness. . . . [See lower diagram of Fig. 4, chapter II, as a 
substitute for the diagram which we omit here.] The dairy 
farms are each members of a group patronizing the central 
sterilizing station. At the central plant milk is received and 
shipped. This station, as a matter of fact, is a large dairy 
house and performs all of the functions of a dairy house for 



206 APPENDIX C 

each of the different farmers. In short, the dairy farmers 
take care of their barns and feed and milk their cows, while 
the central station takes care of the milk which the farmers 
bring to it. From the central station the milk is shipped to 
the city in the usual way. 

4. Plant and Equipment. — The plant consists of a build- 
ing such as is commonly used for creamery purposes or for 
a milk shipping station. It must be large enough to accom- 
modate the volume of milk which it is expected to collect 
from the territory and must be constructed in accordance 
with the well-recognized principles of milk sanitation. It 
must have water-tight floors, abundant lighting and ventila- 
tion, proper drainage and water supply, and must be con- 
structed so that it can be easily cleaned. It should include 
separate rooms for receiving milk, for washing pails and 
cans, for cooling, bottling and pasteurizing milk, for bottle 
washing, for power plant, for ice, and accommodations for 
employees, office, laboratory and storage. The equipment 
should include tanks for receiving milk, cooHng, bottling and 
pasteurizing equipment, bottle washing machinery, power 
plant, refrigerating apparatus, and equipment for washing 
milking pails and milk cans, a complete laboratory equip- 
ment for examining milk for bacteria and butter fat, and the 
proper type of covered milking pails and milk cans, milk 
bottles, etc. 

So far as the dairy farms are concerned but little addi- 
tional expense is necessary. Of the seventy farms at Homer, 
N. Y., which have patronized the station of the New York 
Dairy Demonstration Company, the only expense generallj'' 
undertaken has been for tanks of wood, or of cement, or of 
galvanized iron, to hold ice-water in which the 40-quart 
cans of night's milk have been stood for cooling purposes. 
Aside from this, more frequent whitewashing of barns and 
additional care in cleaning cow stables have been the chief 
external evidences of extra sanitary precautions. 



APPENDIX C 207 

5. Sanitary Measures. — The following is a list of sanitary 
measures which are insisted upon: 

1. At Dairy Farms: — 

(a) All milking must be done in covered milking pails 
provided by the central station. These milking pails 
must have small mouths with tin covers and must be 
kept clean during transportation from the central sta- 
tion to the farm. 

(b) Milking pails and milk cans must not be washed 
or sterilized on the dairy farm. 

(c) No strainers must be used. No other milk uten- 
sils must be used, excepting those provided by the cen- 
tral station. 

(d) All milk must be cooled in 40 qt. cans by placing 
the cans in ice water, excepting where milk is delivered 
to the central station within three hours after milking. 

2. At Central Plant: 

(a) All farmers' milking pails are washed, sterilized 
and dried. 

(b) All milk cans are washed, sterilized and dried. 

(c) All milk is cooled and bottled. 

(d) Bottle washing and sterilizing. 

(e) Refrigerating and shipping. 

6. Sanitary Control. — It is one thing to recommend sani- 
tary measures; such recommendations have been made 
for years by pubHc and private authorities interested in 
milk reform. It is quite another thing to have sanitary 
measures adopted and carried out. If there is any virtue in 
the milk system herein described, it hes not so much in the 
sanitary measures themselves, which are already well known, 
but it Hes in the means taken for securing their adoption. 
These may be summed up under the term of Sanitary Con- 
trol, and are as follows: — 

(a) Medical inspection of dairy employees by a resi- 
dent physician. The local country doctor finds it con- 



208 APPENDIX C 

venient in his frequent trips to keep posted as to the 
health of the dairy employees and to make regular re- 
ports to the central station. 

(b) Veterinary inspection of the dairy cattle by the 
local resident veterinarian with regular reports of their 
physical condition. 

(c) Sanitary inspection of dairy farms by a resident 
sanitary expert, who is the superintendent of the central 
station. This superintendent must have bacteriological 
training sufficient to enable him to carry out laboratory 
tests for bacteria, or to supervise the same. He must 
also supervise all sanitary processes in central plant and 
on dairy farms. His influence must be the chief factor 
in maintaining sanitary conditions and in interpreting 
laboratory results, so that milk producers will have 
confidence in the same. 

(d) Regular laboratory tests for bacteria of each 
farmers' milk made in the laboratory of the central 
station. This laboratory needs only simple and inex- 
pensive equipment and the bacterial work consists of 
making bacteria counts by the plate method. Samples 
are taken of farmer's milk as this milk is delivered each 
day to the station. 

(e) Chemical tests for butter fat and total solids when 
necessary from samples taken of milk delivered by the 
farmers. These tests also to be made in the station 
laboratory. 

(f) A bulletin board on which are posted the results 
of all laboratory tests, so that they may be seen by the 
farmers patronizing the station. 

(g) Payment to dairy farmers for milk based on its 
sanitary character as shown by bacterial tests and on 
its richness as shown by chemical analyses. This method 
of payment is the secret of the Sanitary Control. By 
exercising extreme care and thereby reducing the bac- 



APPENDIX C 209 

terial count of his milk, the dairy farmer can earn more 
money than he does if he is careless and delivers milk 
containing large numbers of bacteria. The adjustment 
of the price to the bacterial count on the one hand, and 
to the percentage of butter fat on the other hand, gives 
a strong stimulation to the dairy farmer to produce 
milk which is both clean and rich. Only small premiums 
are necessary to give great stimulation in these two 
respects. 

(h) Tuberculin testing of dairy cattle is an entirely 
separate problem. It has become recognized that raw 
milk to be safe for drinking purposes must be obtained 
from cattle which are free from tuberculosis as deter- 
mined by the tuberculin test. The securing of such 
milk involves principles which are the same as those 
above outlined, namely, that the producer must be paid 
for the cost. More than half of the milk delivered to 
the central station at Homer, is obtained from dairies 
having herds which have passed the tuberculin test. 
These tests have been made as the direct result of a 
special premium paid to the dairy farmers for milk from 
tubercuHn tested cows. This premium has been paid 
in addition to the other premiums mentioned. 

Results 

The use of this system on a large scale has given all of the 
results anticipated from the preliminary experimental work 
carried out by Dr. North in old dairy barns in New Jersey. 
The daily bacterial tests of milk carried out in the laboratory 
of the central station of the New York Dairy Demonstra- 
tion Company at Homer, N. Y., are now on file, and show 
that, while there have been some irregularities, yet in general 
the milk delivered to this station is clean, and has a bacterial 
count which is far lower than can be obtained by ordinary 



210 



APPENDIX C 



methods. This has been confirmed by the tests made in 
other laboratories in places to which this milk has been 
shipped. 

As an illustration of the character of the milk delivered to 
the station by dairy farmers, one of the daily laboratory 
record sheets is given below: 

CREAMERIES OF THE 
NEW YORK DAIRY DEMONSTRATION CO. 



ANALYSIS OF MILK AND CREAM 



Date, July 26/12. 



TUBERCULIN-TESTED DAIRIES 



Dairy 
no. 



1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 



Name of owner 



T.Bell 

W.Bell 

C. C. Bennett 

F. L. Burnham 

R. Butler 

C. H. Button 

I. C. Button 

E. Carr 

H. C. Crofoot. . . . .. 

Crofoot & Cummings 

Ed. Foster 

Fox Bros 

S. Gillett 

J. R. Hathwav 

N. D. Hitchcock 

H. R. HoU 

H. H. Jones 

R. Jones 

L. E. Klock 

W. H. Miller 

Perry Bros 

C.F.Pratt 

M. E. Pratt 

F. Rice 

Crofoot & Rogers . . . 

D. Sellen 

C. W. Wilkins 

E. M.Williams 



Butter- 


Temp. 


fat 




3.5 


52 




56 


3.4 


56 


3.2 


46 


3.7 


50 


3.3 


46 


3.4 


54 


3.5 


52 




54 


3.5 


52 


3.2 


50 




48 




52 


3.6 


50 


3.8 


54 




50 




48 


4.4 


42 


3.6 


48 


3.6 


48 


3.5 


52 




54 


3.8 


46 


3.8 


50 



Bacteria per c.c. 



Night 



500 

500 

2,500 

500 

10,000 

4,000 

9,000 

15,000 

1,500 

10,000 
1,000 
1,000 
1,000 
1,000 
2,000 
1,000 
1,000 
3,000 
2,000 
1,500 
1,000 

5,000 
1,500 
1,500 



Morning 



400 
2,000 
1,500 

500 

2,000 

15,000 

1,000 

1,000 

1,000 
1,000 
1,000 
5,000 
5,000 
3,000 
2,500 
1,500 
1,500 
1,500 
2,500 
2,500 

1,000 
2,500 
1,500 



APPENDIX C 



211 



NON-TUBERCULIN-TESTED DAIRIES 



Dairy 

No. 



29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 
39 
40 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
46 
47 
48 
49 
50 
51 
52 
53 
54 
55 
56 
57 
58 
59 
60 
61 
62 
63 
64 
65 
66 
67 
68 
69 



Name of owner 



G. Baldwin 

D. Bingham 

F. Carpenter. . . . 
J. Coon 

D. Cortrite 

A. Crampton. . . . 

F. Crampton. . . . 

C. Devoe 

A. Edwards 

L. Eldredge 

C. Goodale 

H. Hooker 

C.Hunt 

C. Jones 

E. Kingsbury. . . . 

C. Knapp 

H. Larrison 

D. J. McAuliff. . . 

W. Moxie 

W. Muncey 

E. O'Connor 

Mrs. J. O'Connor 

P. O'Connor 

P. O'Donnell 

J. Palmer 

J. Quinlan 

T. Quinlan 

E. Shea 

J. Skinner 

S. Spencer 

L.Stafford 

Sweeney Bros. . . . 

C. Sweeney 

M. Sweeney 

T. J. Sweeney. . . 

R. T. Turner 

W. Twoomey. . . . 
J. B. Underwood. 
J. Weddle 

G. Wilson 

J. Van Buskirk . . 



Butter- 
fat 



Temp 



52 
52 
54 
52 
50 
56 



54 
56 
52 
52 

44 
52 
46 
56 
54 
56 
54 
56 
54 
58 
56 
52 

54 
54 
56 
54 
54 
56 
54 
60 
50 
56 
46 



Bacteria per c.c. 



Night 



2,000 
1,000 



750 
30,000 



12,000 
7,000 

12,000 
1,000 

3,000 
6,000 
4,000 

15,000 
2,500 

20,000 

3,000 

2,000 

20,000 

10,000 

3,000 

15,000 

15,000 
3,500 
3,000 
6,000 
1,500 
4,500 
1,000 

10,000 



Morning 



1,500 
1,000 
2,000 
2,000 
800 
6,000 



4,000 
1,000 
2,000 



3,000 
4,500 
4,500 
5,000 
2,000 
14,000 

5,000 
5,000 

15,000 
2,000 

10,000 

7,500 

2,000 
2,500 
6,000 
9,000 
4,000 



5,000 



The dairy farms on which this milk is produced, while 
some of them are of superior character, are in general the 



212 APPENDIX C 

type of dairy farms seen throughout the great producing 
sections of the milk industry.* The majority of the dairy 
barns are simple and inexpensive in construction, and have 
none of the elaborate and expensive features of the certified 
dairies. The cleanliness of the milk produced by these 
dairies was well illustrated in the recent milk competition 
held at the New York State Fair, at Syracuse, in September, 
1912. In this contest two of the Homer farmers obtained 
scores for their milk superior to the scores of fifteen certified 
dairies entered, and were only beaten by the score of one 
certified competitor. Of the thirty-nine entries in the com- 
petition, seven were milks from the Homer station, and these 
took five places out of the first fourteen entered. 

Relation to Milk Industry 

There are several branches of the milk industry which 
have already shown an interest in the adoption of this system 
of milk production and handling. Certain modifications are 
necessary to adapt the plan to the peculiar character which 
the industry may have in different parts of the country. 
Enough work has been done to date, however, to demonstrate 
that in this way clean milk can be produced in large quanti- 

*"The fact that the shipping stations and dairy farms furnish no 
external evidence to the casual inspector of any differences from other 
stations and farms shows that external appearances give a very small 
clue to the real character of the product. The testing of the product 
itself shows immediately to the investigator a most startling difference 
between the milk produced at these stations and the milk produced at 
ordinary shipping stations. Furthermore, the most vital factor at work 
in these dairy districts is invisible, because this factor is summarized 
in the word 'influence.' The influence of the bacterial test and of the 
system of payment on the mind of the producer keeps him keyed up to 
a high pitch of watchfulness and care. When the producer sits down 
to milk, his mind is preoccupied by two thoughts: one, bacteria; and 
the other, dollars. It is this influence which achieves the remarkable 
results brought about at these stations." (Communication from Dr. 
North.) 



APPENDIX C 213 

ties by our present milk producers at a comparatively low 
cost. The principle of centralization of effort through the 
establishment of a central station under the supervision of a 
resident Sanitary Superintendent, and the payment for milk 
based on sanitary quality and chemical quality as deter- 
mined by laboratory tests, are principles which can be 
adopted in any locality and which will bring sure results. A 
large volume of business can be secured by one central sta- 
tion receiving milk from a number of dairy farms. This 
makes necessary only one power plant, one bottling equip- 
ment, one washing and sterilizing equipment, one good ar- 
tesian well, and the salaries of one superintendent and one 
force of dairy employees to handle the milk from several 
scores of farms. The volume is such that the tax for Sanitary 
Control and handling on each quart of milk is small. This 
form of organization gives efficiency and economy and 
means clean milk at low cost. 

References 

The following is a list to date of papers by Dr. North concerning 
the above system, its development and related matters : — 

"A method of milk production," New York Medical Record, Feb. 
15, 1908. 

"Sterilizing stations in dairy districts," Journal of the American 
Public Health Assn., Sept., 1911. 

''The production of sanitary milk by our present milk producers," 
59th Annual Report, Mass. State Board of Agriculture, 1912. 

"The market value of cleanliness in milk production," address 
delivered at 36th Annual Convention of New York State Dairy- 
men's Association, 1912. 

"The dairyman versus the dairy," American Journal of Public 
Health, June, 1915. 

"Bacterial testing versus dairy inspection," American Journal 
of Public Health, June, 1916. 

"A survey of dairy score cards," American Journal of Public 
Health, Jan., 1917. 



APPENDIX D 

COSTS AND PRICES 

Various investigations have been made of economic costs 
at different stages of the milk industry from cow to con- 
sumer. No attempt will be made here to present any general 
abstract of these, much less to discuss all the details. Cost 
items, furthermore, vary decidedly at different times and 
in different regions. Hence the results quoted below are to 
be taken merely as illustrative. The figures of direct sig- 
nificance in any locality are those derived from local con- 
ditions, e. g., by investigating bodies and agricultural 
agencies. 

COST OF PRODUCTION 

While most of the controversy relative to prices has cen- 
tered about the cost of production, this is the hardest of the 
various costs to draw from practical conditions. Accurate 
bookkeeping by dairy farmers is very rare. Figures presented 
by farmers operating under common conditions show dis- 
crepancies and variations which must produce a sense of 
caution with regard to all such figures. The majority of 
dairy farmers, particularly small farmers, do not know the 
profit or loss on their business of milk production as a whole, 
much less on the outputs of individual cows in their herds. 
Many such farmers are producing milk either at a loss or 
at little or no profit, are not taking measures to improve 
their conditions, and are unable to present convincing figures 
when the question of milk prices arises. 

The Boston Chamber of Commerce, through its Committee 

214 



APPENDIX D 215 

on Agriculture, in cooperation with various agricultural 
agencies, conducted throughout New England, in 1914, a 
series of public milk hearings which were attended by about 
2,500 farmers.* At these hearings the farmers were interro- 
gated on the following points : 

What it costs per year to keep a cow. 

The average production per cow per year. 

Value of the calf. 

Value of manure. 

Other problems incident to the production of milk. 

Their views as to what ought to be done. 

The number of producers [reports the committeel who kept a 
strictly accurate record of all the [necessary] items was naturally 
small. During the last five or ten years, however, more attention 
has been given to the question of the cost of keeping a cow, and the 
number of producers who have kept accurate records has been 
rapidly on the increase. As a matter of fact, it was shown that it 
has been only within the last seven to ten years that serious con- 
sideration has been given to an analysis of the items of cost in the 
keeping of a cow. 

More accurate figures were furnished by the producers of Ver- 
mont than by the producers of any other part of New England. 
It was shown that Vermont was the largest dairy state in New 
England and supports 34 cow test associations. 

The testimony given by the farmers in the various sections of 
New England naturally showed a wide range of opinion as to the 
value of calf and manure, and as to the amounts and prices charged 
for the individual items. The peculiar conditions in each locality 
proved to be a large determining factor. 

Taken over New England generally, under varying conditions 
and with varying degrees of efficiency (varying ability) and varying 
accuracy as to items of cost, the following range of figures represents 
fairly the evidence obtained at the hearings. . . . 

* This was part of a general investigation of milk and cream condi- 
tions in New England. See Appendix E. 



216 APPENDIX D 

Total Cost * 

Producer Producer Producer 
No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 

1. Feed, — hay, grain, ensilage, pas- 

ture $49.40 $51.54 $68.00 

2. Labor 17.72 18.15 45.00 

3. Overhead charges 

a. Interest on money invested 

in cow 3.00 5.85 10.00 

b. Insurance on cow .45 .37 3.00 

c. Taxes on cow 2.15 .75 

d. Depreciation of cow 5.00 9.75 20.00 

e. Barn rent 2.86 2.00 1.00 

f. Bedding 2.00 1.00 5.00 

g. Keep of bull 2.86 3.00 5.00 

h. Incidentals, — light, medi- 
cine, veterinarian, heat- 
ing water in winter, salt, 

etc 1.50 .50 5.00 



$86.94 $92.91 $162.00 

* "The two fundamental figures entering into the cost of a quart of 
milk are the net cost of keeping a cow per year and the amount of 
milk the cow produces in a year." "All of the figures can be obtained 
by accounting for the total amount of each one of the items for the 
entire herd, then dividing by the number of cows, to obtain the in- 
dividual cost. The total 'production of each cow, however, should he kept 
separate, as should also her' butter-fat test." The manner of figuring cer- 
tain cost items is explained in the report as follows: — 

1. Feed. — -Hay, clover, alfalfa, were figured at the market prices that 
could be received for the same in the barn on the farm; grain for what 
it costs plus delivery to the farm; pasture according to its value, taken 
in comparison with hay and grain; ensilage at its estimated value, 
$3 to $4 per ton. 

2, Labor. — -Labor was charged at the local market price for just 
the time it takes to care for the cows. 

3d. Depreciation of Cow. — Depreciation was reckoned in two ways: 
(1) depreciation over a period of 3, 5 or 8 years, as to deaths, injuries, 



APPENDIX D 217 

Credits 

No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 

Value of calf $1.00 $11.00 $5.00 

Value of manure 5.00 10.00 15.00 



$6.00 $21.00 $20.00 

Net cost to keep a cow. . . $80.94 $71.91 $142.00 

(These figures show that it costs No. 3 almost twice No. 2 to keep 
a cow.) 

Figures obtained on production varied from 3,500 to 15,000 lbs. 
per year. 

In the above three instances, the amount of production per cow 
was as follows: 

No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 

5,293 lbs. 6,590 lbs. 8,000 lbs. 

The cost of 100 lbs. of milk to each was, therefore, — 

$1.5291 $1.0911 $1,775 

Cost per quart, — 

$0.0332 $0.0237 $0.0385 

It is, however, ^' clear from the inconsistencies in these 
figures," remarks the Committee, 'Hhat they furnish no real 
basis for determining the actual cost of production." 

The several factors entering into the foregoing results were 
found to vary widely in the different sections of the pro- 
ducing territory according to the grade of stock kept, the 
methods of feeding, and the character of the soil. These 
factors are discussed in the report. 

As to the lack of accurate knowledge of cost of production 
among farmers, the Committee has this to say: — 

It appeared that the situation was further complicated by 

loss of udder quarters; (2) depreciation as to the highest selling value 
of the cow as compared to its final value for beef. 

3d. Barn Rent. — -Barn rent was charged on a basis of what it would 
cost to erect a stable to keep the number of cows the producer maintains. 



218 APPENDIX D 

the fact that producers generally had no accurate knowledge 
of a number of important factors affecting the cost of produc- 
tion on their farms. 

Wide Range in Production. — 1. This was particularly true in re- 
gard to the number of pounds of milk per cow. While figures ob- 
tained by the committee ranged from 3,500 lbs. to 15,000 lbs. per 
year, it was clear that there are many cows in New England pro- 
ducing under 3,500 lbs. per year. 

It is exceedingly doubtful if most of the cows in New England are 
producing much more than 3,500 to 4,000 lbs. per year. 

Small Percentage of Pure Breds. — The evidence demonstrated that 
while in many towns there are from 5 to 25 producers who have pure 
bred bulls and some have pure bred cows, as a matter of fact the 
majority do not have either; and outside of the cow test associa- 
tions a disappointingly small per cent weigh or measure, although 
there has been a great increase in weighing in the last three or four 
5''ears. 

High Percentage Without Records. — Probably 80% of the farmers 
have no accurate idea what their cows are producing each year in 
pounds of milk, to say nothing of their test in butter-fat. 

[The rest refers to inaccurate charging of barn rent and inci- 
dentals.! 

The lack of any standardized methods of production and 
of accurate knowledge of costs is due, says the Committee, 
partly to temporary, partly to permanent, causes. The 
evidence indicated the following as the principal factors in 
producing and continuing this condition : 

Commercial Dairying a New Industry. — 1. The selling of milk and 
cream and the commercial creamery and cheese factory are not 
old, estabhshed industries. Fifty years ago saw the first commercial 
cheese factory, and thirty-six years ago the first commercial cream- 
ery. General shipping, to any great extent, of milk and. cream by 
cars began less than forty years ago. Formerly, farmers sold from 
their farms, for their cash income, corn, oats, wheat, beef, sheep, 
wool, eggs and poultry, home made cheese and butter, wood and 
logs. 



APPENDIX D 219 

2. One great factor in the situation is the varying amount that 
the milk check contributes to the total amount of money received 
from all products within the year. Producers are of two main 
classes. 

Milk Production the Main Business. — a. Producers whose milk 
and cream check is 90% of their total income. 

Milk Production as a Side Issue. — b. Producers whose milk and 
cream check is 10% to 60% of their total income; who are selling 
market-garden produce, eggs, poultry, onions, tobacco, apples, 
potatoes, pigs, hogs, young stock, cows, wood and logs. 

The (a) producer is generally more concerned about his dairy 
business than (b) producer, who is making milk a side issue and does 
not pay much attention to breeding, feeding, amount of production 
as compared with (a) producer, but (6) producers are a big factor 
and produce in the aggregate much milk and cream for the market. 

Advent of Foreigners. — 3. Many foreigners are taking up farms 
and producing milk, working the entire family on the farm. Few. 
of these figure labor costs, but their milk and cream come into 
direct competition with the producer who figures each item. 

Causes of dissatisfaction among producers were brought 
out as follows: — 

Producers' Solution. — Although the cost of production varies 
greatly and is not accurately known, producers are practically unani- 
mous that they are not receiving enough for their milk. The pro- 
ducer's solution is more money for his milk, ranging from 4 cents to 
6 cents a quart at his door. 

Test and Price Suspected. — It also developed that the producers 
suspected certain dealers of not giving them an honest test for butter- 
fat. In some localities it was claimed that dealers paid producers 
a higher price for their milk or gave them a bonus for hauling milk, 
so as to keep peace in the locahty, and prevent producers from 
getting together. 

Deduction for Sour or Frozen Milk. — The dealers in some instances 
charged the producers for shortage, sour milk and frozen cream, 
for which the producer claimed he was not to blame, having de- 
livered his product to the dealer in good condition and full measure. 



220 APPENDIX D 

Monopolistic Methods. — It was also brought out that, in certain 
instances, dealers entered creamery districts offering the producers 
higher prices until such time as the dealer could secure control of 
the local creamery, when the prices paid producers would be re- 
duced to make up for the higher prices previously paid. 

The above has been quoted in order to indicate some of 
the considerations involved in detailed investigation of the 
economics of milk production. There never was a time when 
economic pressure required so much as now that the farmer 
consider carefully the actual cost of milk production. For 
every dairy farmer there are two problems: to detect, by 
means of individual records,* the poorest cows in his herd 
and dispose of these; then, by means of accurate farm ac- 
counts, to determine the costs after the poorest milkers have 
been eliminated. These costs, as we have remarked, vary 
so much by time, locality, and individual farm conditions 
that general figures are impossible. The important figure 
is the local figure, but it is, as yet, rare to find dependable 
statements even among those producers who claim to keep 
systematic accounts. Hence it is that a number of agricul- 
tural experiment stations have undertaken to ascertain 
accurately the costs in their respective localities. These 
figures are most useful when they not only make possible a 
comparison between efficient and inefficient farm manage- 
ment but also distinguish between ideal and practical condi- 
tions. It must be borne in mind that the average farmer 
cannot humanly be expected to take up at once the methods 
of the scientific expert of the experiment station. 

To quote here the diverse figures obtained in different 
investigations under various conditions would confuse rather 
than illuminate. The reader will be best enlightened by 
consulting the most recent results from the experiment sta- 
tion in his own State. One of the most thorough experiment 

* Cow-test associations assist the individual dairyman in doing this, 
or he may make his own tests. 



APPENDIX D 221 

station studies comes from New York.* This gives the cost 
of producing milk on 174 farms in one county and also 
figures taken from bulletins from certain other States in 
recent years. The figures are, for cost per quart: New 
Hampshire, 4.2 cents; Massachusetts, 5.2; Connecticut, 4.6; 
New Jersey, 4.2; Delaware County, New York, 5.1 (1912) 
and 4.4 (1913). The writer of this bulletin recommends that 
''without doubt the greatest need for this region is more 
efficient cows," but adds that in his opinion ''the farmer 
does not receive enough for his milk." 

KELATIVE COSTS OF LINKS IN THE MILK CHAIN 

Figures indicate that when milk is marketed through a 
middleman the farmer receives, roughly, from one-third to 
one-half the retail price, the remainder going for transporta- 
tion, processes, distribution, overhead, and middleman's 
profit. 

Owing to wide variations it is impossible to give adequate 
estimates of the general costs of the different operations of 
the city milk industry. Some idea of these is given by the 
finding in a recent investigation in New England t that 
the total cost of collection in the country, operation of coun- 
try plant, railroad transportation, and operation of city 
plant was a little over or under 3c.; while the cost of distri- 
bution to the family trade was 2c. to 5c.; to retail stores, in 
cases of bottles, Ic. to 2c. ; and to the wholesale trade, J^c. to Ic. 
"The greatest single item of cost is, therefore, delivery to 
the family trade, equahng the cost of collection, country 

* Thompson, A. L., "Cost of producing milk on 174 farms in Delaware 
County, New York," Cornell University, Agric. Exper. Sta., N. Y. 
State College of Agric, Bull. 364, Oct., 1915. Studies have also been 
made in other counties of New York. For further data see bulletins 
of the Federal Department of Agriculture and of the various state 
departments of agriculture and agricultural experiment stations. 

t Boston Chamber of Commerce, special report, 1915. 



222 APPENDIX D 

plant, railroad transportation, and city plant expense." * 
We have elsewhere (pp. 139-40) discussed this important 
item and its possible reduction. 

The cost of the important sanitary item of pasteurization 
has been determined for certain city milk plants as (aver- 
age) .313c. per gallon of milk (range, .229-.436) and .634c. 
per gallon of cream (range, .378-.939).f The ''holding" 
method, which sanitary efficiency requires, was found to be 
more economical in use of heat than the ''flash" method. 
In Chicago the cost of pasteurizing milk was found to range 
from one-thirtieth of a cent per gallon for large plants to 
.85c. per gallon for one small plant. { 

(Some details and unit costs of milk plant operations are 
taken up in the circular letters to city milk dealers pub- 
lished by the Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, 
United States Department of Agriculture.) 

THE EXTRA COST OF PRODUCING CLEAN MILK 

Little attention has, until recently, been paid to the cost 
of the sanitary factors in milk production, but, in view of 
the past non-recognition of the relative values of these fac- 
tors, the deficiency is not serious. Whitaker, of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, in 1909 estimated the 
additional cost of complying with certain important items 
of the Department's dairy score card, and concluded that 
"a reasonably clean milk is worth 2 cents more than common 
slovenly milk. The former is safer and therefore cheaper at 

* The average price received by the dealer for milk delivered to 
family trade was 9c. per quart and to retail stores 6c. to 8c. 

t Bowen, John T., " The cost of pasteurizing milk and cream," U. S. 
Dept. Agric. Bull. 85, 1914. 

I Rpt. of Senate committee of the 46th General Assembly to in- 
vestigate the tuberculin test and the pasteurization of milk and its 
products (as quoted by E. O. Jordan, Trans. XV Internal. Congress on 
Hyg. and Demography, 1912, vol. IV, p. 637). 



APPENDIX D 223 

the increased price." * With more efficient methods of pro- 
ducing clean milk, based on the present better understanding 
of the importance of certain items, the cost of sanitation may 
be reduced. Such methods are now, fortunately, illustrated 
by the system of Dr. North, who found the additional cost 
necessary to supply a tubercuhn-tested milk with a bac- 
teria count under 30,000 at time of delivery to be one and 
one-half cents per quart (see pp. 81-82). The extra cost of a 
non-tuberculin-tested but pasteurized clean milk would be, 
on this basis, not more than one cent. 

PRICES, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL f 

Wholesale prices for milk vary greatly according to place, 
time of year, and economic conditions. There are a num- 
ber of different systems of payment in use — according to 
the can (of various content), hundredweight, butter-fat, etc. 
General figures compiled by the United States Department 
of Agriculture { from milk dealers throughout the country 
show that the average price paid to farmers in 1912 was 
3.57 cents a quart; in 1913, 3.85; and in 1914, 3.80 (figures 
net at farmers' shipping stations). The average varied in 
1914 from a maximum of 4.20 in December to a minimum of 
3.26 in June. The highest prices were paid in New England 
(average, 4.66) and the lowest in the Mountain States (3.45). 
The highest monthly average was in New England in No- 
vember (5.05) and the lowest in June in the Middle Atlantic 
States (2.84). One dealer in the latter region reported that 
he paid only 90 cents a hundredweight for milk in June, 

* Whitaker, George M., ''The extra cost of producing clean mUk," 
Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agric, Circ. 170, 1911 (re- 
printed from 26th Ann. Rpt. Bur. An. Ind., 1909). 

t For more recent prices later publications from the sources men- 
tioned may be consulted. Those quoted are the most recent obtain- 
able at time of writing, 

J Weekly News Letter to Crop Correspondents, Jan. 20 and April 28, 
1915. 



224 APPENDIX D 

which would be only a little more than 1.9 cents a quart. 
The above figures are quoted to give an idea of the varia- 
tions commonly met with. 

In publications of the Federal Department of Labor * 
may be found the average wholesale prices of milk in the 
New York market for a series of years. Taking the average 
for 1890-99, 2.55 cents (net price at shipping stations sub- 
ject to a freight rate to New York of 26 cents per can of 40 
quarts), as the base (=100), the relative price figures are 
as follows: 1900-04, 108.8; 1905-09, 124.8; 1910-14, 139.3; 
1915, 139.2. The actual average price in 1915 was 3.51 
cents per quart at the stations shipping to New York and 
3.76 at those shipping to Chicago. 

The average retail price of milk in certain representative 
cities of the United States has been as follows: 1890-1900, 
6.8 cents per quart; 1901-05, 7.1; 1906-10, 8.1; 1911-15, 
8.9; December, 1915, 9.0.| The average retail price paid to 
producers in the United States, derived from figures of the 
Department of Agriculture,! was, for 1915, 7.1 cents per 
quart; for 1916 (eleven months), 7.3. Comparisons showing 
the smaller increase in the retail price of milk as compared 
with certain other important food products have been given 
in Chapter IV. 

* Bull. 81, Bureau of Labor; Bull. 181, Bureau of Labor Statistics; 
Bull. 200, Bureau of Labor Statistics, July, 1916. 
t Bull. 197, Bureau of Labor Statistics, June, 1916. 
X Information by letter. 



APPENDIX E 
LOCAL EXPERIENCES AND INVESTIGATIONS 

NEW ENGLAND 

The milk question in all its bearings has for years been a 
subject of difficulty and controversy in New England. This 
region, in which large industrial communities have grown 
up, drawing their milk supplies from ever widening circles, 
shows doubtless the most acute milk situation to be found 
anywhere in the United States, and one never so acute as at 
the present time. 

In Massachusetts the population is increasing at the rate 
of twenty per cent per decade, yet the number of milch cows 
has fallen off in the past ten years by eighteen per cent. 
There has also been a decrease in milch cows in neighboring 
States (see Appendix A). Concerning this phenomenon the 
Chief of the Massachusetts Dairy Bureau has had the fol- 
lowing to say: — 

The elimination of unprofitable dairy cows and the dropping out 
of unsuccessful dairymen, for whatever cause, as well as the inevit- 
able reduction of the milk supply to such a point as will bring the 
price of milk to a profitable figures, are but the results of an in- 
adequate price for milk. 

The decline in the number of cows is greatest in those localities 
where milk is shipped by rail to large cities for consumption. It 
is, therefore, perfectly natural that nearby localities are first to be 
affected. This decline, however, does not stop, but goes on and on 
no matter how far the area of milk supply is extended, and the near 
future will undoubtedly see further decline, especially in northern 
New England and even in Canada until milk producers come to a 
reaUzing sense of the great fundamental fact that milk has been too 

225 



226 APPENDIX E 

long sold below cost price. Milk production will decrease until the 
great law of supply and demand does its share of the work in rectify- 
ing the situation. The remedy, so far as we are concerned, is the 
education of the consumer to the food value of milk as compared 
with other animal foods, together with the education of all to the 
exact knowledge of the producer's position. Greater economy in 
milk production must be practiced. Better cows, more scientific 
feeding and improved business methods are urged of the farmer. 
Economy in handling, especially in the method of distribution, is 
urged of the distributer, and a sense of justice and wilhngness to 
pay a fair price for milk is urged of the consumer.* 

It may be added that there is a feeling among Massa- 
chusetts producers that they have been under stricter super- 
vision, entailing greater trouble and expense, than those 
sending milk from outside of the State, without corre- 
spondingly greater compensation ; and this feeling has further 
complicated the situation. 

The New England milk problem, centering about the city 
of Boston, has been subjected in past years to a number of 
general or limited investigations, by the Federal Dairy Divi- 
sion and by other investigators, mainly from the sanitary 
side. In 1914 the whole matter was taken up afresh by the 
Boston Chamber of Commerce, which, through its Com- 
mittee on Agriculture, made a thorough investigation of all 
phases with special reference to economic and business con- 
ditions. The reasons and scope of this inquiry were as 
follows : — 

It has been apparent for some time that the production and dis- 
tribution of milk in the New England States is not on a sound 
economic basis, and that there is something radically wrong with 
the way in which this important industry is now being conducted. 
It is obvious that the opportunities in the industry are far from 
being fully realized. 

* 62d Ann. Rpt. Sec'y Mass. State Board of Agriculture, for 1914, 
p. 424. 



APPENDIX E 227 

Milk has always been a staple article of consumption with all 
classes, and is among the best and cheapest foods on the market. 
The large cities of southern New England would naturally look to 
the adjoining territory for their supply. This territory (northern 
and central New England) is well able to support a flourishing dairy 
industry — and dairying should naturally be the largest single 
branch of New England agriculture, our greatest single industry. 

Generally speaking the per capita consumption of milk in the 
United States has been steadily increasing; but in certain districts 
of New England the per capita consumption has been decreasing 
for the past ten years, and the amount required has been drawn 
from a larger and larger territory, and from districts more and more 
remote. 

In short, despite the increase in our urban population, the output 
of the principal agricultural industry in the immediate adjoining 
territory has declined. Country districts, which ought to be flour- 
ishing, are at a standstill. No one has appeared to understand the 
cause of the difficulty, or to have comprehensive ideas for its solu- 
tion. 

The Committee on Agriculture of the Boston Chamber of Com- 
merce, in view of this situation and at the request of the New Eng- 
land Milk Producers Association (an organization of about 2,000 
New England farmers), has made this investigation in the hope of 
being able to throw a strong hght upon the fundamental causes of 
the difficulty and of being able to work out suggestions for its solu- 
tion. This investigation has been conducted in cooperation with 
the agricultural agencies of the various New England States. The 
Federal Department of Agriculture also has rendered assistance in 
the transportation features. 

It appeared necessary, first, to obtain exact facts as to conditions 
now existing in New England regarding production, transportation, 
inspection, grading and distribution; second, to make a thorough 
analysis of this information, studying the methods adopted by rail- 
roads and cities elsewhere; third, to make, if possible, recommenda- 
tions helpful in putting the industry on a sound basis. 

The report has two divisions. The first outlines the present 
conditions in each phase of the industry, undertaking to give the 
reader a mental picture of how milk and cream are produced, 



228 APPENDIX E 

transported, processed, inspected, graded and distributed, and 
giving the costs and principal problems connected therewith: the 
second contains comments and suggested recommendations. 

The resultant report is an exceedingly valuable document 
to all concerned in readjustment of the milk industry, being 
packed with data which are not only of local appHcation but 
are of comparative and suggestive importance for other 
regions where similar investigation may be needed. It may 
be noted in passing that one of the principal points brought 
out was the lack of standardization and grading of milk 
which has been the main theme of the present volume. To 
attempt to quote or abstract from this report further than 
we have done elsewhere would hardly do it justice; the in- 
quiring reader is therefore referred to the original publica- 
tion.* 

The subject of railroad rates for milk and systems of 
shipping, having reached an acute stage, was taken up by 
the United States Interstate Commerce Commission in a 
long series of hearings held in Boston in February and 
March, 1916.t 

The chief milk measure before the Massachusetts Legisla- 
ture in 1916 was a bill prepared by the State Department of 
Health, on the basis of extensive investigation, providing 
for the formulation by the Health Commissioner of regula- 
tions involving the grading of milk throughout the State 
by a plan applying progressively in communities of different 
sizes over a period of several years. The agricultural in- 
terests, however, preferred no general legislation, and had 
their way, the bill finally being defeated. 

* ''Investigation and analysis of the production, transportation, in- 
spection, and distribution of milk and cream in New England," Boston 
Chamber of Commerce, July, 1915. The Chamber has also issued a 
pamphlet showing in detail how grading may be carried into effect. 

t "The New England milk case," Supt. of Documents, Washington, 
D. C. (5 cts.). 



APPENDIX E 229 

The question of milk prices in New England reached a 
crisis in the fall of 1916, as the result of demands by or- 
ganized producers for a higher price from the dealers. As a 
result of the controversy, which centered in the Boston 
market, where an effort was made to withhold milk, some 
price increases were obtained. At the same time the retail 
price was raised by Boston dealers to ten cents. More re- 
cently (1917) the producers have obtained a further increase 
in summer wholesale price, and the retail price of staple 
market milk has gone to eleven cents. Costs of feed and farm 
labor are reported to have risen greatly in the last year; 
hence the farmers' demand for the higher price. There is 
evidence of increasingly effective organization among the 
farmers of this region. 

Very full data regarding the milk situation in Massachu- 
setts, embracing conditions in the milk-producing districts 
of New England, with discussions bearing on the general 
milk problem, have recently been published by a special 
board of the State Department of Health.* 

NEW YORK STATE 

Reference has been made, elsewhere in this volume, to 
the system of sanitary grading prescribed for the towns and 
cities of New York State (other than New York City) by 
the State Sanitary Code. This, so far as the writer knows, 
is the only state system that has thus far been estabhshed, 
and its working is being watched with interest. The New 
York City system has also been referred to. (See Appen- 
dix B.) 

The aim of a statewide system of grading is to secure a 
desirable uniformity of standards and to induce communi- 
ties which would otherwise remain apathetic to strengthen 



* 



Report of the Special Milk Board of the Massachusetts State De- 
partment of Health, 1916. 



230 APPENDIX E 

their milk supervision. Confusion and demoralization in 
the milk trade through the adoption of differing local stand- 
ards are thus avoided. As long, however, as local organiza- 
tion and resources, particularly as to laboratory facilities, 
remain deficient, effective grading throughout a State can- 
not become an accomplished fact. The logical function of 
state authorities is to supervise adequately the supply of 
each town until it reaches the town confines, but in any case 
final tests and the enforcement of grading are matters of 
local control. 

The economic difficulty has recently become acute in 
New York State. The Legislature of 1916 authorized a 
special committee to investigate the market conditions of 
agricultural products in general, including milk as a subject 
of chief importance. Senator Charles O. Wicks, introducing 
the resolution, is reported to have spoken as follows : — 

"The farmers," he said, "are getting less for their milk than they 
were getting two years ago, despite the fact that the price of feed 
and the wages of their help have soared in the meantime. The 
farmers are compelled to sell their milk for less than three and one- 
half cents a quart. I do not know whether it is due to a combine of 
the big middlemen or not, but I do know that the dairy farmers 
are suffering severely and that many of them are being forced out 
of business. 

"A situation might thus readily arise which would be very serious 
to the consumers in such large communities as New York City. 
Something should be done to remedy the situation." * 

The above-mentioned committee is interested in markets, 
prices, and methods of marketing, including economic ques- 
tions connected with the milk industry. 

The price controversy between producers and dealers in 
the New York market came to an acute issue in the fall of 
1916. The organized producers withheld large quantities 

* New York Times, April 4, 1916. 



APPENDIX E 231 

of milk, cutting down the city's supply at one time to little 
more than a third of normal, and threatened to attempt to 
establish a cooperative distribution system through the 
medium of the State Commissioner of Foods and Markets. 
The boycott resulted in victory for the farmers, the dealers 
granting the cent-a-quart increase demanded. 

NEW JERSEY 

Under a law reorganizing the State Department of Health, 
provision has been made for the adoption of a state sanitary 
code, which, when drawn, will include milk regulations. 
These, at present writing, have not yet been published. 

RHODE ISLAND 

In 1915 a special commission was authorized by the Legis- 
lature to inquire into the agricultural resources of the State. 
A large share of the attention of this Commission was de- 
voted to the milk and dairy problem. In a recently pub- 
lished preliminary report * the Commission says : — 

The situation in respect to this industry is serious . . . there is 
general dissatisfaction, (1) on the part of the producer because the 
dairy business is on the whole unprofitable, and (2) on the part of 
the consumer because of the poor quality of milk furnished by the 
producer. From the standpoint of health also there is profound 
dissatisfaction. 

The Commission recommends measures for excluding 
tuberculous cattle, for improvement of stock, and for in- 
struction of dairymen. Attention is called to the decrease 
in milch cows in the State and the tendency to go out of the 
State for milk. 

* Preliminary Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Agri- 
cultural Resources of the State, Providence, 1916. 



232 APPENDIX E 

There are many reasons for this decrease in the number of cattle, 
but they may all be summed up in the statement that the keeping 
of cattle has ceased to be profitable under present conditions. The 
demand from the cities for improvement in the quality of milk has 
not been met, simply because the average farmer who sells his 
milk to a middleman cannot make dairying pay. . . . To-day the 
whole subject is misunderstood both by producers and consumers. 
Whether rightly or wrongly, consumers believe that milk should 
be delivered to them at a price not more than nine or ten cents a 
quart. Any attempt to raise that price will only result in a lessened 
consumption, an end not to be desired if we consider the food values 
of milk and the health of children. 

Believing that "the trouble arises chiefly from the middle- 
man, who purchases at low rates from the producer milk 
both good and bad, mixes these, averaging their butter-fat 
contents, and then sells a low-grade milk at a large profit,'* 
the Commission makes the following radical recommenda- 
tion : — 

In view of these facts your Commission therefore recommends 
that cities or urban centers having a population of over 5,000 be 
required to establish municipally owned central milk depots, con- 
venient to transportation centers, and to allow no milk whatsoever 
to be sold within their limits before it has passed through these 
depots for standardization and pasteurization, under the supervision 
of their Boards of Health, in accordance with rules approved by the 
State Board of Health. 

This recommendation does not apply to the smaller towns, whose 
milk supply is as poor, if not poorer, than the supply in cities. Some 
arrangement, however, can easily be made, either to have the milk 
of the towns standardized at the nearest city depot or to let certain 
towns, in combination or separately, set up depots of their own. 

The Commission "believes that no solution of the milk 
problem is worth while unless it insists on a thorough stand- 
ardization, so that each consumer may know exactly what he 
pays for in purchasing milk," and recommends the classifica- 



APPENDIX E 233 

tion of milk in four market grades, ail of which, except the 
highest, must be pasteurized at the central milk depot. The 
lowest of these grades is ultimately to be dropped. The 
question of distribution is discussed and it is proposed that 
the privilege of delivery by districts be sold or auctioned in 
each municipality. 

Whether this plan by which the community supersedes 
the individual in the sale of milk will be put into operation 
and whether it can be justified as a legitimate exercise of the 
police powers of the State remains to be seen. It is perhaps 
most interesting as a commentary on conditions which have 
been thought to call for so drastic a remedy.* 

MILWAUKEE 

The following interesting account of recent developments 
in the milk situation in Milwaukee has been received from 
Mr. F. W. Luening, Deputy Commissioner of Health, under 
date of January 28, 1916: — f 

Our local problems here have most recently revolved about the 
question of the tuberculin test and pasteurization. There are 
incidentally, questions concerning the merits of clarification, and 
to us the big question of public understanding and cooperation. 

Milwaukee some years ago enacted an ordinance requiring that 
all milk sold in the city come from tuberculin-tested herds. An 
injunction was promptly served, prohibiting the city from enforcing 
this ordinance. An organization of milk shippers then took the 
matter into the courts and delayed enforcement for a number of 
years. The case was carried from a first hearing in the presence 
of a court commissioner to the supreme court of the United States. 
In every instance the city had the better of the argument. When 

* Cf . the discussion on municipalization, Chapter V. 

t In the course of his study the author has had correspondence with 
a number of officials in different towns and cities. Some of their remarks 
by courtesy of the writers, are reproduced here as furnishing useful 
first-hand information. 



234 APPENDIX E 

the final decision was rendered by the supreme court of the United 
States, an attempt to enforce the provisions of the ordinance was 
made. There was an immediate strike of milk shippers. They 
refused to ship milk to Milwaukee, and succeeded in curtaihng the 
supply appreciably. The larger dairy companies, however, would 
readily have won this battle had they actually been concerned in 
it. It became evident that they were not directly concerned nor 
that they even desired that the ordinance be enforced. While they 
managed to procure milk, they took a stand against the Health 
Department, and with the shippers, succeeded in at least rendering 
negative most of the favorable pubhc opinion, and took the matter 
into the Common Council, where a bitter fight was waged on the 
floor, which finally was won by the Health Department. 

The dealers then protested that it was impossible to continue the 
milk business under existing conditions — that is, with the curtailed 
supply and the opposition of the shippers. 

Ultimately, the department was compelled to procure temporary 
shippers without the enforcement of the ordinance. 

The fight was then taken to the floor of the state legislature, 
which met in the fall, and there a second long battle was waged, 
which was again won by the Health Department. 

It has not yet been possible to fully enforce the ordinance, how- 
ever, despite these victories, perhaps as largely because the milk 
dealer does not want a restricted source of supply as because the 
shipper does not want to test his cattle. By cooperative work, 
however, and educational effort, the shipper is gradually coming to 
see the merits of the test and is no longer the most active opponent. 
The dealer, on the other hand, appears to see a threat to his source 
of supply in that the test will restrict the number of shippers and 
thus permit a comparatively compact body to dictate prices. 

The question of pasteurization was incidentally brought up in 
connection with the test when the dealers contended that their 
pasteurizers were all-sufficient to take care of any contamination 
by tuberculosis that might exist in the milk, and by suggesting 
that a pasteurization ordinance be passed. Eighty-five per cent 
of Milwaukee's milk supply already is pasteurized, and, although 
such an ordinance is in contemplation, it has not yet been intro- 
duced. 



APPENDIX E 235 

The broader question of public cooperation was also brought 
forcibly before us during the recent years and in consequence of the. 
efforts to enforce the tubercuhn-test ordinance. The pubUc is 
negative in the matter of milk purchases. Milk is milk to the aver- 
age consumer. A white fluid in a bottle with a cream line, is about 
all he seems to be interested in. In fact, users of milk here, have 
told us that they could see no difference between the milk from a 
tuberculin tested herd and the milk from an untested herd. They 
have explained that the cream line was no lower, that the milk 
tasted no differently and that they could see no excuse for paying a 
higher price for such a milk. This attitude, more or less exag- 
gerated, was apparent and general, and, of course, makes for the 
defeat of a provision Hke that requiring the test. The dealer can, 
quite safely, oppose any requirement until the public demands it. 

So that the milk question, like most other public health ques- 
tions, is compelling the Health Department to become an educa- 
tional institution primarily, and is relegating the pohce powers to a 
secondary place.* 

The producer also must be made to follow the public understand- 
ing of the milk question. So long as milk is accepted by the pubhc, 
either in urban or rural communities, without question concerning 
its source, filthy milk will be produced, and the product of the cow 
will be contaminated until it is hardly fit for food. So long as the 
public is wiUing to rely upon strainers, clarifiers and other artificial 
means of removing 'dirt, the producer will not concern himself 
greatly about keeping dirt out of the milk. 

The commercial aspects, of course, play a further part, as is 
indicated in the attitude of the dealer toward the tuberculin test. 
The milk dealer will always want as wide a market as he can get, 
as many shippers as he can get and as many other sources of supply, 
including creameries, cheese factories and other concentration 
centers. He will always, directly or indirectly, oppose restrictions 
by authorities or the pubhc, that will curtail his supply. It is not 
to his advantage to deal with a body of shippers who have comphed 

* This can rightly be taken to mean only that in practice a great 
part of the work of effective health departments is educative or suasive 
rather than compulsive. Authority still remains, of course, the basis 
of administration. — J. S. M. 



236 APPENDIX E 

with certain ordinance provisions and therefore are exclusively in a 
position to supply a particular milk. This would place these ship- 
pers in the position of dictators, whereas, under existing conditions, 
the dealer is the dictator. It is not within the plan of the distributer 
to permit a concentration of the present scattered sources of supply 
that are working without coordination, largely without coopera- 
tion, and almost entirely without organization. Whether, from a 
public viewpoint, anything would be gained by placing the power 
in the hands of the shipper rather than in the hands of the dis- 
tributer, is questionable, of course. That the producer is capable of 
assuming an arbitrary and arrogant stand, is evidenced by the milk 
strikes conducted by milk shippers on two occasions. While it is 
true that these particular strikes could readily have been broken by 
the dealers, the public and the authorities working together, it is 
questionable whether such strikes might not be used to the decided 
disadvantage of the consumer, were the producers well organized. 

BROCKTON, MASS. 

The city of Brockton has for some years been conspicuous 
for success in bringing about sanitary improvement of milk 
supplies through regulation based upon bacteriological tests. 
The city maintains a general municipal laboratory, the 
Director of which, Mr. George E. Boiling, also Inspector of 
Milk, several years ago wrote as follows concerning appear- 
ance vs. results in dairies: — 

Our experience in the supervision of our local milk supply has 
shown us that the appearance presented by a dairy or the score it 
obtained was not a criterion of the cleanliness of its product, and 
that intelligent personal supervision by the owner of the detailed 
work in a dairy essential to the production of clean milk went 
further toward securing such a product than fancy equipment 
turned over to hired help. Our motto became "The proof of the 
pudding is in the eating," and when milk taken from the wagons 
of the dealers when ready for final delivery to the consumer showed 
a clean product, we did not insist on more or less costly changes 
at the dairy that regularly marketed such milk. 



APPENDIX E 237 

We became convinced, also, that there was an economic side to 
the milk question and that it vies with the health aspect in impor- 
tance, for, as runs the famous receipt for rabbit pie — ''first catch 
your hare" — so someone must first produce the milk, and if it is 
not made a profitable undertaking for someone, who will produce 
it and then where does the health question enter in? 

Our final conclusion was that the proper way to inspect milk was 
by the laboratory and if anything went wrong an inspection of the 
dairy became necessary, and that to rule indiscriminately that 
each dairy must be equipped thusly and score a certain percentage 
was unnecessary.* 

A recent report of the Brockton Health Department 
states : — 

As we have reiterated from year to year, and as further demon- 
strated by our work in 1914, the high scoring dairy does not neces- 
sarily produce the cleanest and safest milk. 

Dairymen supplying Brockton have succeeded in produc- 
ing unusually low-bacteria-count milk in stables of inex- 
pensive construction (see Plate 3, p. 83) and the names of 
the most meritorious are published in the annual reports of 
the Health Department. The following statement, in answer 
to a short list of questions, is furnished by Mr. Boiling: — 

1. Sanitary milk inspection for Brockton began in 1906; that 
year the local board made rules and regulations to supervise the 
production, care, and sale of milk. Among the regulations was one 
limiting the number of bacteria in milk intended for sale to 500,000 
per c.c. Collection of samples from wagons and stores to deter- 
mine their relation to the bacterial standard began immediately 
upon adopting the rule in 1906. The first year about 600 samples 
were examined by the plate method of counting and in the last ten 
years 12,300 have been so examined. Persistent violations of this 
rule have been prosecuted, about a dozen altogether in the ten 
years. Only such cases have been prosecuted, however, as proved 

* "The development of a municipal laboratory," American Journal 
of Public Health, June, 1912. 



238 APPENDIX E 

to be unamenable to advice and instruction how to produce cleaner 
milk. Since 1909 the Statute standards of solids and fats have been 
enforced, about 1,500 to 2,000 chemical examinations being made 
yearly. 

2. We have no "milk problem" here that I recognize as such. 
The one matter in which I would Mke to see a change is for the 
public to be more willing to pay a higher price for the cleaner milk. 
This would be automatically brought into effect by sanitary grading. 

3. From the standpoint of a health official I would say the most 
important single regulation is the one Hmiting the bacterial content 
of milk intended for sale. 

4. As regards pasteurization I believe that the New York system 
of grading as well as the scheme just proposed by the Massachusetts 
State Health Department will both serve admirably to induce quite 
general pasteurization. I believe it should be generally required 
and that we can hardly err in so doing. 

The retail price of milk in Brockton is nine cents, which 
implies that sanitary improvements have been brought about 
without excessive increment of cost. 

For a city with a raw milk supply, Brockton has been 
unusually free from traceable outbreaks of milk-borne dis- 
ease. In 1915, however, two such occurred, involving 
(though promptly checked) some 48 cases; * — merely an- 
other demonstration of the fact that city milk supplies, 
however clean in the ordinary sense, may carry infection 
unless efficiently pasteurized. 

PALO ALTO, CAL. 

As an illustration of experience in a small community, 
Palo Alto, Cal. (population ca. 6,000), may be taken. Mr. 
Harold F. Gray, the former Health Officer,f has kindly fur- 
nished some particulars. This community relies upon tuber- 

* Personal communication, Mr. Boiling, 
t Now Asst. Health Officer, San Jose, Cal. 



APPENDIX E 239 

culin tested clean raw milk for its supply. Concerning the 
introduction of the tuberculin test Mr. Gray writes: — 

We had practically no real difficulty. The campaign for tuber- 
culin-testing, with pasteurization as an alternative, was gradual, 
and began shortly after the very severe milk-borne epidemic of 
typhoid fever in 1903. At that time the Board of Health employed 
a veterinarian to tuberculin-test the various dairy herds. There 
was no local authority, however, to compel the elimination of re- 
actors, some of the dairymen getting rid of them and some retaining 
them. At this time most of the milk sold at from 5c. to 6c. a quart, 
retailed. 

This test, however, called the attention of the local public to the 
situation, and several of our more progressive dairymen began the 
annual testing of their cows and advertised the fact, obtaining a 
higher price for their milk. As time went on, more of them followed 
suit. 

The history of the campaign for better milk is summarized 
as follows: — 

Near the end of 1910 under a new city charter, the Board of Pub- 
lic Safety installed a modern health department, directed by a non- 
medical but technically trained health officer, who began an ag- 
gressive campaign for a better milk supply. The great majority of 
dairjnnen tested their herds, and when the writer took office at the 
beginning of 1914, there were only three large and one small dairies 
remaining untested, and of these one large dairy had tested, but 
had not excluded the reactors. 

About the middle of 1914 ... I obtained from the City Council 
an ordinance compelling either tuberculin-testing or pasteurization. 
For a while some pasteurized milk was sold in Palo Alto, but event- 
ually this was discontinued for the reason that the pubhc preferred 
the raw milk. 

I am very aware of the great merit of pasteurization as a measure 
of safety against milk-borne epidemics in cities where a close super- 
vision of the milk supply is not possible. In Palo Alto, however, 
we are able to supervise our dairymen so closely that the danger 
of milk-borne epidemics is practically neghgible. As a further pro- 



240 APPENDIX E 

tection in the new ordinance which we are now drafting, to make 
our local ordinance conform to the new state dairy law which goes 
into effect on October 1st, we are providing that all employees 
engaged in the production of the higher grades of milk shall have at 
least an annual medical examination. 

I am sure that at the present time none of our local dairymen 
would want to return to the old conditions, even though some of 
them bucked against the changes pretty hard. The pubhc has sup- 
ported us in our work and, so far as I know, has not objected, ex- 
cept in some few rare instances, to the increase of retail prices. At 
the present time the better grades of our milk are retailed for 10c. 
a quart and few dairies still supply a small amount of milk at 8§ c. a 
quart. The probability is that after the new law goes into effect 
guaranteed milk will sell for about lie. or 12c., grade A, lOc, and 
grade B, 8-Jc. a quart. 

Some effort was made to obtain exact financial data re- 
garding the relative cost and profit in producing high-grade 
and low-grade milk, but little information was forthcoming 
from the dairymen. 

Several stated to me, however, [writes Mr. Gray] that their 
net profit was considerably larger for the production of good quality 
milk as against poor quahty. They based this statement on these 
factors: * 

(1) The better care of the dairy cows meant an increased produc- 
tion per cow, the value of which increase was much in excess of any 
expense of additional feed. 

(2) The greater interest in quahty has led to a greater interest in 
production per cow (as well as practically compelled it), so that 
they have weeded out the "boarders" or unproductive cattle. 

(3) A higher grade milk has commanded higher prices, both 
wholesale and retail. 

It is to be wished that such results were more frequently 
the case. 

* These evidently refer to general care of cows and food quality of 
mUk as well as to sanitation. — J. S. M. 



APPENDIX E 241 

MONTCLAIR, N. J. 

The town of Montclair, N. J., was the pioneer in the 
United States in official work for clean milk, and has, under 
a succession of trained health officers, brought its milk stand- 
ards to the culmination of obtaining a tuberculin-tested milk 
of high sanitary quality. At Montclair the legal question 
of the tuberculin test was conspicuously fought out, with 
the result that an important victory was won by the Board 
of Health and the legal status of the test firmly established. 
In previous pages reference has been made to Montclair on 
several points. For further information the reader is re- 
ferred to the annual reports of the Board. 

RICHMOND, VA. 

Strict regulation aiming at clean milk has also been prac- 
ticed for some years in Richmond, Va., under the direction 
of the Health Officer, Dr. E. C. Levy. Nearly half of the 
market milk in this city runs under 10,000 bacteria per c.c, 
and 83.3 per cent of it below 50,000. The infantile diarrhea 
death rate has declined remarkably, year by year, for the 
last four years, though Dr. Levy remarks that he does not 
hold ''the primitive view that the milk supply is everything 
in this connection or, indeed, that it is, in all probability, 
the most important single thing. '^ The classification of 
milk recently adopted by this city, (see Appendix B) shows 
the requirement of pasteurization of milk not of the first 
grade. 

WINNIPEG, CANADA 

Dr. A. J. Douglas, Medical Officer of Health, writes as 
follows : — 

From the experience I have had, my personal view is that pas- 
teurization offers the most satisfactory solution of the problem of 
how to secure a safe milk. In this city at least I do not see how the 



242 APPENDIX E 

situation can be adequately dealt with in any other way. This 
department has endeavored for the past fifteen years to educate 
producers and to point out the advantages, both to producer and 
to consumer, of clean and safe milk. ... At the present time pos- 
sibly eighty per cent of our local supply is pasteurized, and we know 
that this process is adequately carried out, as we keep an inspector 
on the floor of each plant. A few years ago no pasteurized milk 
was sold here. At that time a year never went by without one 
or more outbreaks of disease, usually typhoid, which could be traced 
unequivocally to the milk supply. Since pasteurization has come 
extensively into use some four years ago, we have not had a single 
outbreak of disease which we could prove was milk-borne. 

MILK SUPPLIES OF TEN EASTERN CITIES 

Several years ago the Jersey Bulletin * collected some 
interesting information and figures regarding the milk sup- 
plies of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Buf- 
falo, Providence, Columbus, Toledo, Hartford, and Burling- 
ton, Vt., published in an article concluding as follows: — 

In summarizing, it will be seen that the average price paid per 
quart by the consumer in all the ten cities is about 1% cents. While 
specific information regarding the price received by the producer 
was not obtained in every instance, it is plain to see that it averages 
close to 33^ cents a quart, or less than half the retail price. In 
other words, the farmer or the dairyman has to keep up his farm, 
maintain his cows, feed them, milk them and see more than 50 per 
cent of the final receipts go into others' hands, while his receipts, in 
many instances, barely pay the cost of production. 

As to the tuberculin test, the average opposition to rules laid down 
by health boards in this regard seems to be about 98 per cent; 
though of course this does not apply in the case of certified pro- 
ducers. The feeUng of the farmer producing market milk has al- 
ways been antagonistic to strict regulation by city authorities, and 
no doubt always will be just so long as he is given no monetary in- 
ducement to practice better methods. 

The fact remains, however, that the average standard of the milk 
* Jersey Bulletin and Dairy World, Indianapolis, Aug. 23, 1911. 



APPENDIX E 243 

supply of our large cities has greatly improved in the last few years, 
and even though the methods used in bringing this about have 
been in many places strongly objectionable to the producer, the 
results have directly or indirectly been generally successful; and 
now that the pubhc has become better educated to the value of 
good milk, it remains for the farmer or producer to impress this 
fact more strongly than ever by keeping up the quality, to the end 
that he may receive for his milk not only what it costs him to pro- 
duce it, but a reasonable profit thrown in. 

THE DAIRY SITUATION IN FREDERICK AND 
BALTIMORE COUNTIES, MARYLAND 

All of the general positions taken in this book have been 
strikingly confirmed in an intensive survey, made during 
the summer of 1915, of the milk situation in Frederick and 
Baltimore Counties, Maryland. This survey brought out 
exceedingly important points, and, since similar conditions 
prevail in many other regions, has more than a local interest. 
Hence a summary account of it is here reprinted entire. 
The investigation was made by the Women's Civic League 
of Baltimore, in cooperation with the dairymen, through an 
investigator qualified to deal with agricultural questions. 
The findings involve an interesting comparison between 
differing conditions in the two counties: at the same time 
they may be compared, as a small-scale survey, with the 
large-scale survey in New England by the Boston Chamber 
of Commerce which has already been referred to. The 
analysis of the sanitary and economic questions centering 
about the price of milk is the pervading characteristic of the 
report, which we quote without further comment : * — 

The purposes of these investigations were two: (1) To secure the 
point-of-view of the man behind the cow in things as they are in 

* Reprinted from The Toum, organ of the Women's Civic League, 
Baltimore, Md., June 10, 1916. The report is based, with omission 
of some details, on two earlier reports. 



244 APPENDIX E 

the milk business and to record his suggestions for the improve- 
ment of these things; (2) To secure facts and figures relative to the 
actual cost of production, seUing price and profit or loss among the 
dairymen. This information should serve as a basis for intelligent 
legislation. 

Those farms selling milk direct into Frederick City were be- 
heved to serve best the purposes of the survey, and it was from 
these 47 dairymen that the 25 units of the survey were selected. 
They presented a problem purely productive in nature and uncom- 
plicated by long hauls to distant markets. 

Is DAIRYING YOUR SPECIALTY OR JUST A SIDE-LINE? With all of 

the 25 men, except 2, who sold to retail trade, the milk business 
was merely a side-line. 

Is IT BETTER OR WORSE THAN IT USED TO BE? Only 2 thought it 

better, 16 declared it worse, and 7 thought it just about the same. 

Do YOU WEIGH THE MILK FROM EACH COW AND TOTAL HER PRO- 
DUCTION? Only 1 of the 25 took this business precaution. 

Do YOU KEEP FARM BOOKS? Only 2 of the 25 kept farm books. 

The next three questions established the fact that the average 
dairyman had to get up about four in the morning and that many 
milked by lantern Ught. The average working day was 14^ hours! 

The TUBERCULIN TEST had but 7 converts and many of these 
qualified their declaration with, "but not as it is done down here." 
Eighteen were dead against it. There were no neutrals. 

Are THE PRESENT MILK LAWS FAIR TO THE INTERESTS OF THE 

FARMER? Upon this point there was a great unanimity of opinion. 
Only 3 men believed that the farmer was getting a square deal, 
while 20 were loud in protestation to the contrary. Two were 
neutral. 

Does dirty milk cause disease? There were no neutrals on 
this point; 15 believed that dirty milk might cause disease or even 
death, but 10 denied that such a danger existed. 

Milk produced per cow per year, 5,943 pounds. The average 
of the State is about 3,500 pounds. This average is very low and 
capable of being doubled and then doubled again. 

Cost of production per quart of milk: The amount of milk 
produced and the cost of production: These two factors control 
in so far as the producer is concerned, the extent of his profit or loss. 



APPENDIX E 245 

Yet only one farmer out of 25 was able to approximate the amount 
produced, and not one was able to even hazard a guess at his pro- 
duction cost. Which represents the main distinction between the 
''milk business^' and simply "shipping milk." 

To PRODUCE A QUART OF MILK COST, ou the average, 3.5c. (14.0c. 
per gallon the year through.) 

The average selling price per quart was 3.8c. (15.2c per 
gallon the year through.) 

It will be at once observed how small is the margin of profit from 
the sale of milk alone. Nevertheless, of all the 25 dairymen, only 5 
were actually losing money, and the value of calves and manure 
produced redeemed 3 of these to the extent of just about breaking 
even. 

Although 20 herds were making some money, very few were 
making their owners rich or even adequately compensating them 
for trials and tribulations undergone. The average dairyman 
ended the year about $330 ahead — a httle less than a dollar a day 
profit from the sale or utilization of both milk and calves. To this 
msiy be added the value of manure produced by each cow during 
the year. 

Average profit per cow per year : From milk and calves sold 
or utiUzed, this profit was $17. 

What is wrong with the milk business? 

The laws were attacked by 12 farmers, mainly on the grounds 
that they were written from a citified viewpoint and likewise en- 
forced; that they raised expenses without raising prices; and that 
they were ineflficiently administered. 

Inadequate prices had six adherents. Most of these took the 
stand that if the towns want better milk they must pay better 
prices. They called attention to the fact that the price of feeds, 
fertilizer and labor has almost doubled during the last decade and 
that there has been no corresponding increase in the price of dairy 
products. 

The middleman was attacked by only two of the 25. 

What suggestions have you to make things better? An- 
swers on this point were vague and varied. Those who held legisla- 
tion at fault wanted "better laws;" those who complained of "poor 
prices" wanted "better prices;" and the two who were against the 



246 APPENDIX E 

middleman advocated direct selling. All agreed that "cooperation" 
was necessary to secure their several ends. 

Does dirty milk cause disease? Undoubtedly it does, and 
sometimes death, especially among infants. To the 10 men who 
stated their disbelief in any danger from dirty milk, and to any 
other who may hold a Uke opinion, we would say: "Ask Your 
Doctor." 

What is wrong with the milk business? Certainly not all 
the trouble can be traced to Inadequate Prices. The production 
end of the milk business is, for the most part, being carried on in 
an unbusinesslike manner, and the producer himself thus takes rank 
among the factors which prevent his realizing from his herd all that he 
is entitled to. We believe that the time will come when every dairy- 
man will find it profitable to produce clean milk and when he will be 
able to turn to his books to prove the extent and sources of this 
profit. The first interest of the State should be the industry which 
feeds the State. The main dependence of Maryland agriculture is 
the dairy farmer. 

We cannot believe that the present milk laws represent the main 
difficulty, no matter how imperfectly they may have been drafted 
or unsympathetically applied. 

Any one dairyman can of himself reform his own business and, 
even at current conditions and prices, make it pay. How? Ask the 
man who belongs to a Cow Testing Association! Of course, a man 
does not have to join a Cow Testing Association; he can weigh 
the milk, make the tests and figure the results for himself. But, if 
he is to make money out of dairying nowadays, he must do one or 
the other. 

Baltimore County showed an encouraging degree of enlighten- 
ment and fairmindedness in regard to the latter-day features of 
the business. Where Frederick County farmers had gone on record 
as in favor of only about one-third of these things, Baltimore County 
declared for 80 per cent of them. 

Frederick County produced its milk more cheaply and made 
more money from its herds. Its production cost was only 3.5c. per 
quart as compared to an average quart-cost of 4.5c. in Baltimore 
County. And to this latter cost may be added 0.5c., the quart-cost 
of "milk tickets," a thing unknown in the field of the Frederick 



APPENDIX E 247 

County investigation, where the shippers sold directly into Fred- 
erick City. This haK-cent transportation charge is not, strictly 
speaking, a part of the Production Cost, but it does represent a 
substantial part of what might be called the Producer's Cost, and 
so should be counted in. If it be so considered, the Baltimore 
countian averaged an expenditure of 5.0c. for every quart of milk 
produced. Of course, this does not apply to the few who shipped 
to a creamery or supphed a small local trade. 

An (t) after a figure means that this figure is greater than the 
corresponding result of the Frederick County investigation; a 
minus-sign means that it is less. 

Is DAIRYING YOUR SPECIALTY OR JUST A SIDE-LINE? Fifteen (-) 

thought the business a side-hne; ten decided it was a specialty. 

How LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE MILK BUSINESS? The average 
was 18 years (f). 

Is IT BETTER OR WORSE THAN IT USED TO BE? TwO thoUght it 

better; 19 (f) worse, and four either had no opinion or thought it 
just about the same. 

Do YOU WEIGH THE MILK FROM EACH COW AND RECORD HER PRO- 
DUCTION? Five (t) of the 25 took this business precaution. 

Do YOU KEEP FARM BOOKS? Ten (f) of the 25 kept books. 

The working day was thirteen and one-half hours, more than 
an hour less than that of the Frederick County dairjnnen, but 
quite a day at that. 

Would you rather sell to a creamery or direct to town 
AT a bulk price? Twclve (t) preferred the creamery and ten 
shipping to town. Three had no preference. 

Are the present milk laws fair to the interests of the 
farmer? Three thought the laws all right; eight, among whom was 
a lawyer, declared them unfair, and 14 held no opinion. 

Number of cows per herd: The average was 30 (f). 

Pounds of milk produced per cow per year: 5,089 (-). Equiva- 
lent to less than two gallons per day for a period of 365 days. 

To produce a quart of milk cost 4.5c. (t). (18c. per gallon 
the year through, to which may be added 2.0c., the gallon-cost of 
milk tickets.) 

The average selling price per quart was 4.2c. (f). (16.8c. 
per gallon the year through.) 



248 APPENDIX E 

Profit or loss: With the production price exceeding the selling 
price a county-wide loss would seem self-apparent. This loss, how- 
ever, is slightly more than redeemed by the value of calves and 
manure produced. The farms included in the survey were, in al- 
most every individual case and on the average, just about breaking 
even. 

From the sale and utilization of milk and calves there was an 
annual average loss per cow of $6; a loss offset by the manure which 
a cow will produce in a year. So it seems that Baltimore County 
is just about breaking even from its efforts to supply Baltimore 
City with milk. 

Aside from the fertility factor — an important but not a very 
tangible reward — the only other excuse for being in the milk busi- 
ness seems to be the monthly check. This is an undoubted advan- 
tage. In the present absence of any logical system of rural credit 
many farmers are practically banking with the milk middleman; 
pouring in their daily deposits of value and drawing out in cash at 
the first of the month. 

What is wrong with the milk business? This question, put 
to 25 Baltimore County dairymen, elicited 23 decided opinions. 

One dairyman writes, "Allow me to predict that, if conditions 
are not soon bettered, most of the men now engaged in the milk 
business will be forced out of it." 

Where in Frederick County the disposition was to lay the blame 
upon the present laws, Baltimore County was practically unani- 
mous in blaming the system of marketing. 

Sixteen thought the present prices paid for milk to be insufficient 
in view of the constantly growing production cost — a belief some- 
what supported by the facts obtained. Six attacked the middle- 
men. One man thought the trouble to be in "over-production'^ 
and counselled combination in view of finding "some method to 
take care of the surplus." 

What suggestions have you to make things better? The 
great majority of answers to this question simply advocated a "fair 
price." Some specified this price to be "20c. in summer and 25c. in 
winter, showing that the farmers have at least an idea of what it is 
costing them to produce the milk they are selling for 16.2c." 

"Milk should be graded as is the case of all other foodstuffs," 



APPENDIX E 249 

writes one large producer and two others say almost exactly the 
same thing. 

Apropos of the condition and correction for the condition of the 
milk business are the remarks of one of the largest milk middlemen 
of Baltimore, made recently in the presence of a representative of 
the League: 

The middleman's view-point: "Farmers often come to me and 
say, 'I'm losing money by selling milk. I've got to have a better 
price.' 

" ' How much money are you losing? ' They don't know. ' Don't 
you keep books? ' No; they never bother with them. They don't 
weigh their milk and keep account of their individual cows; their 
herds are full of star boarders, eating their heads off. Very often 
they don't have silos; they don't try to raise all of their own feed, 
and they don't feed intelligently. Their product is poor and often 
below city standard. No wonder they are losing money! 

"Some farmers producing milk testing high in butter-fat, low in 
bacteria, and who have their cattle tubercuhn tested every 12 
months are getting now, an advanced price." 

"A general rise in the retail price of milk, however, is next to 
impossible in the hght of present pubhc opinion. 

"It is true that the margin of profit is small; the only way for the 
producer to make money is through more economical methods and 
'better cows.'" 

The wide difference of opinion between the producer and the 
seller of milk is at once apparent. They see the thing from entirely 
different angles. Broadly speaking, each blames the other. It is 
important to note, however, that the middleman quoted was in 
complete accord with the several producers who advocated a system 
of graded milk — a practical point in favor of the system. 

It seems obvious that the dairy business can easily be system- 
atized and improved so that much larger profits will be earned. 
Then the dairy farmer can satisfy the demands of the consumer 
and can, when the legitimate costs justify it, ask a larger price for 
his commodity. The consumer should be willing to pay a fair price 
for safe milk, but he should not be asked to pay for a high cost of 
production due to inefficient methods. 

Russell R. Lord. 



250 APPENDIX E 

Limitation of space forbids further mention of conditions 
in individual localities. A great many special investigations 
have been made, some by the Federal Department of Agri- 
culture, some by state or local authorities or individual in- 
vestigators. The preceding condensed statements are in- 
tended to be merely illustrative of varying local situations 
and individual comment. 

COOPERATIVE PASTEURIZATION AT RIVERSIDE, CAL,* 

A cooperative pasteurizing plant which has many novel features 
has been operated for some time in Riverside. While owners of 
small dairies under the new law, may have their cows tuberculin- 
tested, without resorting to pasteurization, it is possible that owners 
of small dairies may desire to cooperate in the establishment of a 
pasteurizing plant like the Riverside institution. 

Seven dairymen organized the company in Riverside, which was 
incorporated with $20,000 capital stock, $8,500 of which was paid 
in by the organizers. This capital paid-in stock was to draw 7 per 
cent interest, payable semiannually. A sufficient amount of money 
was borrowed to buy the property, build the plant and install the 
machinery. The plant started operating in March, 1911. No 
stock has been sold since that date and none is held by any one 
other than a dairyman. 

Dr. George E. Tucker, city health officer of Riverside, says of 
the operation of this plant and of its effect upon conditions in 
Riverside : 

"Before this plan was started, eight dairies were selling milk in 
the city, with eight wagons making two deliveries a day, and prac- 
tically every block wdthin one mile square was covered by each of 
the eight wagons in the early morning and in the evening, 

" In July, 1910, milk retailed at eight and one-third cents per 
quart. In November, 1910, the price was raised to ten cents per 
quart. A series of tests showed the butter-fat content to vary from 
3 to 43^ per cent, depending to a certain extent upon the convenience 
of the water supply. 

* Bull. Cal. State Bd. of Health, May, 1916. 



APPENDIX E 251 

" After formation of the dairy company, the price was immedi- 
ately reduced and reductions have continued until at the present 
time milk containing 4.2 to 4.5 per cent butter-fat is sold for 15 
quarts for $1.00, or at 6^/3 cents per quart. 

" Since the formation of this company the number of dairies in 
the county has doubled. 

" All the milk and cream is pasteurized by being subjected to a 
temperature of from 147 to 160 degrees for ten to fifteen minutes. 
The milk is first aerated and cooled at the dairies, delivered im- 
mediately to the central plant, where it is pasteurized, bottled, 
reduced to a temperature of between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit 
in the precooHng plant and delivered to the consumer. 

" For the purpose of delivery but three wagons are used for the 
retail trade, whereas formerly the same amount of milk from the 
same number of dairies would have required fifteen wagons. 

" The total investment in this distributing station at the present 
time represents in real estate, buildings, machinery and improve- 
ments about $31,000. There is a floating indebtedness of $11,000, 
drawing 6 per cent interest, and accumulated assets of $9,500. 

" Three dairyman are employed to manage the business at a suf- 
ficient salary to justify them in accepting such employment and 
discontinuing active dairy work. Sweet milk and cream are sold 
not only in the city of Riverside, but in the adjoining towns. 

" There are at the present time ten employees: the three dairy- 
men above mentioned, three men for delivery and three men who 
operate the plant, and one bookkeeper. 

" The advantage of this method of handling the city milk supply 
is apparent. If at any time it is found on inspection that any of the 
contributors to this station are producing milk under conditions 
which are not satisfactory, a notice to the producer from the plant 
is sufficient to prevent the sale of this milk. The fact that our 
general milk supply is pasteurized does not in any way deter either 
the dairymen or the inspectors from insisting upon the production 
of clean milk. 

" I believe that the result of the central dairy plant experiment 
has fostered and very greatly increased the dairy business; that 
the dairymen receive more for their products; that the consumer 
receiyes a higher grade of milk at a less cost, and that two-thirds of 



252 APPENDIX E 

the vexatious problems in the control of a small community's milk 
supply have been solved by the introduction of this plan." 

HINTS FOR LOCAL MILK COMMITTEES * 

1. In undertaking to secure better milk for any community it is 
first important to read the reports of the New York Milk Committee 
and those of other cities, and it will be found helpful to read the 
reports of the Public Health Service on milk. Perhaps the most 
valuable document is the Report of the Commission on Milk Stand- 
ards appointed by the New York Milk Committee, printed by the 
United States Public Health Service in 1912 and again in 1913. 
[A third revised report has appeared in 1917. — J. S. M.] 

2. It is also indispensable that by every possible method, com- 
mittees dealing with milk should know thoroughly the methods of 
production, from cow to consumer, and the difficulties that beset 
the dairy farmer and the city dairy companies. 

3. But perhaps the most valuable step is that which puts a milk 
committee in touch with the local public health authorities. It will 
be found in most communities that both city and state health de- 
partments are inadequately manned and equipped to deal effectively 
with milk problems. Even if this is not true the health department 
will undoubtedly welcome any agency helping to bring to the at- 
tention of the public the rules and regulations of the department 
and suggestions for better health conditions. 

4. The next step will commonly be to employ an investigator, who 
has had proper scientific training, to work with the health depart- 
ment in securing a report on the exact condition of the milk served 
to the public. This can then be made the basis of requests from the 
appropriating powers for proper men and equipment to take care 
of the milk situation where it should be handled — in the health 
department. 

* From an article entitled " How a civic league secured a clean milk 
supply," by Harlean James (Exec. Sec'y, Women's Civic League, 
Baltimore), The Survey, Jan. 16, 1915. 



APPENDIX F 

MILK PRODUCTS 

The scope of the present volume has forbidden treatment 
of the various products derived from milk by modern in- 
dustry. For these the same general considerations hold, so 
far as may be, as for milk. The pasteurization of the milk 
from which these products are made, or of the product itself, 
is very desirable and is, in fact, rather general in practice. 
The concentration of manufacture in plants of some size is 
a factor which makes for the readier control of milk products, 
though the sources of the milk entering into these also call 
for attention. Through modern economic conditions certain 
of these products, such as condensed milk, evaporated milk, 
and skim milk, have come into wide use as substitutes for 
fresh milk. 

The National Commission on Milk Standards (of the New 
York Milk Committee) has had under consideration certain 
products — such as butter, ice cream, condensed milk, skim 
milk, buttermilk, and homogenized milk and cream — and 
the reader is referred to the reports of the Commission * for 
information on their sanitary aspects. In the control of these 
products the principle of correct labelling plays a most im- 
portant part. 

* See 3d. Kept. 



253 



INDEX 



Administration of milk control, 

163 
Agricultural authorities, 52-54, 

164-66 

Bacteria and milk, 13 

Bacteriological tests and stand- 
ards, 67, 92. See also Labora- 
tory. 

Baltimore, 243 

Boston. See New England. 

Brockton, Mass., 83 (pi.), 236 

Butter fat, labelling as to, 92, 
154-55; payments for, by 
• dealers, 144; standards for, see 
Chemical tests. 

"Carriers," disease, 14-15 
Central distribution, 139-40, 250- 

52 
Centralization, 170 
Certified milk, 67 
Chemical tests and standards, 89. 

See also Laboratory. 
Cities, "milksheds" of, 39, etc. 

(figs.); milk supplies of ten 

Eastern, 242 
Clarification, 113; ''public value" 

of, 156 
Clean milk, movement for, 66, 69; 

rational methods in producing, 

76; cost of, 158, 222 
Communicable disease. See Milk- 
borne disease. 
Consumer, 57 



Contamination, 10; tests for, 97 
Contests, dairymen's, 115 
Contractor. See Dealer. 
Cooperative plans, 170, 250; for 

farmers' milk depots, 142-44 
Cost of milk, factors in, 138, 157- 

58, 221-23; and prices, 157 
Cost of milk distribution, 139-40, 

221-22 
Cost of milk production, 138-39, 

214; vs. prices, 46-48, 126-33; 

extra, for sanitary milk, 158, 222 
Cream, grading of, 194, 198, 200, 

201 

Dairy cows, profitable and un- 
profitable, 135-36; statistics of, 
185-88 

Dairy demonstration, 161 

Dairy score card. See Score card. 

Dairying, decline of, in certain 
regions, 121; inefficiency and 
waste in, 110 (pi.), 133-38, see 
also Milk industry. 

Dairyman. See Dealer, Farmer. 

Dealer, 54, 141; and farmer, 142 

Decency, 12-13; "public value" 
of, 156 

Dirt, in relation to milk, 10; tests 
for, 97 

Disease. See Milk-borne disease. 

Distributer. See Dealer. 

Distribution, cost of, 139-40, 
221-22; plans for improving, 
139-40, 171, 250-52 



255 



256 



INDEX 



Economic effects of sanitary regu- 
lation, 147 

Economic importance of milk, 
6-9, 121 

Economic question, crux of, 122 

Epidemics. See Milk-borne dis- 
ease. 

Exhibitions, 115 

Farmer, 46, 122-38; and dealer, 
142 

Farmers' organization, need of, 
51, 145; for marketing, 170; for 
milk depots, 142-44, 170 

Federal authorities, 165 

Grades of milk, "public values" 

of, 156 
Grading of milk, 116; need for, 

147, 149-51, 152-53; principles 

and application of, 153-55; 

systems of, 118, 189; effects of, 

150-51, 159 
Guaranty system of milk sale, 

91-92 

Health official, 44 
Homer plan, 203, etc. 
Homogenization, 114 

Infant mortaUty and hygiene, 

15-21 
Infant welfare stations, 86 
Infection in milk. See Milk-borne 

disease. 
Inspection, 161. See also Score 

card. 

Laboratory, 145 (pi.), 160, 166- 

67; tests and standards, 89 
Legislation, 167 
Legislator, 60 



Local differences, 169 

Local milk committees, hints for, 
252 

Local supervision, 163-64, 166; 
establishment of, 169-70; co- 
operative, 167 

Maryland, 243 

Massachusetts. See New Eng- 
land. 

Microscopic examination, 96 

Middleman. See Dealer. 

Milch cows, profitable and un- 
profitable, 135-36; statistics ot, 
185-88 

Milk, composition, food value, 
and use of, 5-9; pecuniary econ- 
omy of, 6; dangers in, 9-29; 
fermentation and decomposi- 
tion of, 13; sanitary, general 
requirements for, 29. See also 
Clean milk. 

Milk control, by local authorities, 
163-64, 166, 169-70; by state 
authorities, 163-66; relative im- 
portance of, 61 

Milk industry, primitive and ad- 
vanced conditions in, 110, etc. 
(pis.). 

Milk problem, in general, 1-5, 35- 
42, 61-63; solution of, summed 
up, 174-76 

Milk processes, 114 

Milk products, 253 

Milk stations, 86-89 

Milk statistics, 185 

Milk-borne disease, 14-15, 21-29 

Milkman, the old-style, 35 

"Milksheds" of large cities, 39, 
etc. (figs.). 

Milwaukee, 233 

Montclair, N. J., 241 



INDEX 



257 



Municipalization of milk supplies, 
171, 172-74 

National Commission on Milk 
Standards, 189 

New England, 142-44, 149-50, 
214-20, 225 

New Jersey, 231 

New York City, grading system 
of, 197 

New York Dairy Demonstration 
Co., 203, etc. 

New York Milk Committee, Com- 
mission on Milk Standards of, 
189 

New York market prices, whole- 
sale, 224 

New York State, grading system 
of, 199; situation in, 229 

North system, 78, 161, 203 

North's "public value" of dif- 
ferent milks, 155 

Orange, N. J., 201 
Organization, 163, 169-70 
Organizations, unoflScial, 59; hints 
for, 252. See also Farmers' or- 
ganization. 

Palo Alto, Cal., 238 

Pasteurization, 102; time and 
temperature for, 104 (fig.); 
methods of, 109; requirement 
of, 110-13; cost of, 222; plants 
for, cooperative, 171, 250; in 
"pubUc value" of milk, 156 

Physician, 59 

Politics, 4-5, 60 

Prices, milk, general considera- 
tions relating to, 157; in rela- 
tion to the farmer, 126, 221; 



effects of sanitary regulation 
on, 147-51; retail, comparative, 
127-28; retail, and "public 
value" of milks, 156; retail, 
stability of, 146; retail, ticket 
system and fractional prices in 
adjustment of, 146-47; whole- 
sale, according to quality, 144- 
45; in U. S., wholesale and re- 
tail, 223 

Production, cost of. See Cost of 
milk production. 

"Public value" of different milks, 
155 

Publicity, regarding milk problem, 
31-34; of ratings of milk sup- 
pHes, 114 

"Pure milk," demand for, and 
publicity, 31-35; practical def- 
inition of, 29 

Railroads and rate question, 56 

Regulation, sanitary, develop- 
ment of, 64, etc.; economic ef- 
fects of, 147. See also Milk con- 
trol, Legislation. 

Retailer. See Dealer. 

Retailing of milk by ticket system 
and fractional prices, 146-47 

Rhode Island, 231 

Richmond, Va., grading system 
of, 200; situation in, 241 

Riverside, Cal., 250 

Sanitary milk. See under Milk. 

Sanitary regulation. See Regula- 
tion. 

Score-card method of inspection, 
70,83 

Sediment tests, 97-100 

Standards for milk. National 



258 INDEX 

Commission on, 189. See also Tuberculosis, bovine, in relation 
Bacteriological, Chemical tests. to milk supplies, and tuberculin 

State supervision, 163-66 test for, 23-25, 100 

Vermont, 149-50. See also New 
Ticket system of retail payments, Eneland 

146 
Transportation problem, 56 Winnipeg, 241 



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